Theater Company della Luna’s ambitious, highly stylized musical The Perfect Story, written and directed Edoardo Tesio, features original songs, expertly choreographed movement, comedy, drama, and fantasy– all in one elaborate piece. Best of all, the cast and crew makes it all come together so effortlessly.  Taking place entirely in a library, The Perfect Story is bolstered by a young, hardworking elevensom of actors and a talented, creative crew.  This library is LIT!

The central figure in The Perfect Story is an author known only as “The Writer” (Dereck Marmolejos), who slaves in front of a hot typewriter inside a phantasmagorical library where the world’s only book each year is written.  Like so many other novelists before him, this writer has made the morally tenuous choice to move from being solely a word artist to becoming a pop culture celebrity.  But before his Next Big Story comes out, he must find his Next Big… Apprentice!  While this is going on, a manically ambitious reporter named Rose is keeping the public salivating over the titular “Perfect Story” which is supposedly ready to drop.   It’s a reminder of how the reports that we get from so-called “news” sources only tell a microfraction of the REAL story– which turns out to be not quite as perfect  And there is indeed a LOT going on inside this library, expertly expressed via the first musical number, appropriately named Welcome to the Library.

But before the major drama even starts, the audience gets a temporary break from reality (or, to be specific, Theater Company della Luna’s sense of reality) early on with a live interpretation of a fairy tale: What happens when the Queendom of Nymphs collides with the Queendom of Demons– two lovestruck mythical beings at a time?  The loquacious Nymph (Audrey Richards) is dressed all in white; the Demon (Tess Majewski), dressed entirely in black, communicates only through movement and mime. They represent, appropriately, day and night respectively. This interaction on stage, by the way, is a fine example– but certainly not the only example– of the fine chemistry between the ensemble cast.  They are great fun to watch when together; most of the humor of The Perfect Story, in fact, comes from the interplay of the ensemble cast (Richards, Majewski, Olivia Altair, Annelise Brooks Laako, Naomi Abiola, and Zoe Farago), who alternately play several different characters.  But I’m jumping ahead…

As it turns out, The story of the Nymphs and the Demons is actually the literary creation of a young writer (Marjorie Murillo), whose wide, soulful eyes immediately express her ambition and desire to have her stories read.  However, she is not the only one who seeks the opportunity to work with the temperamental Writer.  Several other eager women are competing to be noticed, all using their own individual “brand” for attention.  While this is going on, Dr. Librarian, the manager of the library (Matti Brisso), is grappling with their unrequited love for the Writer, who is sadly resistant to their fervent devotion. Our heroine, meanwhile, is determined to become recognized for her talents alone rather than via the influencer-style gimmicks of the other candidates.  She forms a wary alliance with The Guardian of the Library (Soraya Omtzigt)– which slowly becomes V-E-R-Y personal.  Like our aspiring writer, The Guardian has ambitions of her own.

Thanks to her plucky nature and strength in her creative vision, our rightful Apprentice finally gets the credit she deserves– but one of the other characters falsely takes credit for her stories.  Several plot twists and revelations ensue, leading to a very heavy ending– but along the way, the show lives up to its name as a “musical”: The audience is treated to several more numbers featuring original music written by Olivia Amicangioli and performed by Olivia Altair.  I Know the Rules (“You’re not a person, you’re a BRAND!”), is a bona fide banger, while Please Love Me is the best song never recorded by Britney or Christina. (If only these pop tarts had ever visited a verboten “after hours club” for inspiration, they could have made a song like this!)

At the heart of The Perfect Story is a classically simple, decades-old story of every artist’s central conflict: maintaining one’s integrity and artistic vision, while often almost always having to acquiesce to the proverbial “powers that be”.  Yet, like the story of the Nymphs and the Demons, Tesio has indeed created a very modern fairy tale of sorts with The Perfect Stranger: The dreamlike aesthetic starts with  with the set design, which features  bookshelves and books literally painted onto the walls.  The resulting atmosphere is surreal, self-indulgent, and fabulous, with greatly appreciated attention to symmetry.  Tesio’s script is smart and sassy, and not afraid to occasionally dip into the “theater of the absurd, particularly with the addition of the “writecycle”.

The entire cast of The Pefrect Story is wonderful: Even when these hardworking actors don’t say a word, they have amazing stage presence. As The Apprentice, Marjorie Murillo is one tough cookie, although Soraya Omtzigt as The Guardian comes close to being her spiritual match.  In a deliciously decadent performance, Matti Brisso is perfectly cast as Dr. Librarian, while Dereck Marmolejos, as The Writer, plays a complicated character who is patently designed as someone who we’re supposed to “love to hate”: There’s more than a touch of Miranda Priestly in this king of his own gilded cage of a kingdom. (This Devil Wears Asos…) The costumes by Tomoka Takahashi deserve a big shout-out: The are classically simple yet meticulously detailed at the same time; The characters’ looks carry the collective fashion sense of multiple generations at the same time.   The polish and attention to detail in The Perfect Story is a refreshing rarity amongst Off-Off-Broadway productions. This show is truly an elevated experience. Plus, any production that makes libraries cool again gets MY vote!

Theater Company della Luna’s The Perfect Story continues through Sunday, May 24 at The Flea, 20 Thomas St, NYC.  For tickets and more information, visit here.

Photos by Clara Jeanne Reed.