(Above: Musician and actor Jake Allen recreates the real-life character of Ben Scheuer, who wrote and originally performed the one-person musical, The Lion, now onstage at Oregon Contemporary Theatre.)
By Randi Bjornstad
The Lion, now onstage at Oregon Contemporary Theatre is a highly unusual production in several ways.
First of all, it is performed by one person, who accompanies himself using six highly distinctive guitars. Second, it is an autobiographical tale, although really not a tale because it is a real autobiography, with words and music written by Benjamin Scheuer about his own life and the challenges he faced within his own family, especially with his father.
Harvard Magazine once did a piece — the play premiered in 2014 and Scheuer happened to be a Harvard student in the class of 2004 — in which it described the play this way:
The only props in The Lion, the critically acclaimed musical by Benjamin Scheuer ’04, are the chair he sits on and six gorgeous guitars. Among them, there’s a gentle 1929 Martin, an electric Gibson that growls, and a stylin’ Froggy Bottom H-12, which Scheuer got as a thirtieth birthday present.
But the two most important instruments Scheuer has ever played are not on stage with him. The first is a toy banjo that his lawyer father made for him out of the lid of a cookie tin, some rubber bands, and an old necktie for the strap. Scheuer played it alongside his father on the front porch, mimicking his finger strokes. The second instrument is the guitar his father played, which the teenage Scheuer inherited after a sudden brain aneurysm killed his father and sent his world into chaos.
Told mostly through whimsical and poignant songs, The Lion traces Scheuer’s quest to understand the parts of his father that he never could as a boy: the manic rages, the disappointment in his son, and the discouragement regarding music as a career. It’s also the story of the son’s attempts, across nearly 20 years, to reconnect with the father he loved, the man who taught him the joy of music. “I don’t know that I wrote this show in order to come to grips with my father’s death,” he says. “I think I needed to understand my father’s death in order to write the show.”
Obviously compelling in many ways, The Lion won the 2014 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Solo Performance for Scheuer, as well as Best New Musical at London’s Off-West End Awards.
The OCT version features the authorized American actor for the show, Jake Allen, as Ben Scheuer, producing artistic director Craig Willis said.
“It’s a show that not a lot of people have heard of before,” Willis said in announcing the production. “Those who have seen it, typically love the show. I know that was certainly true when I discovered it in its first U.S. tour a number of years ago, which included a multi-week run at Portland Center Stage.”
Later, he was “ecstatic” when he learned OCT could bring the 75-minute-long The Lion to Eugene. The director is Sean Daniels, the original director of the show, assisted by North Carolina-based associate director Ashlee Wasmund, who worked on The Lion in Boise before its arrival in Eugene.
Ashley Wasmund, associate director of The Lion at OCT
In a telephone interview before the opening, Wasmund said it’s been rewarding to work on the show, “which maintains the integrity and intention of Daniels’ and Scheurer’s original vision.”
“It’s also great that Jake Allen is such an accomplished musician as he plays all these different guitars that have such very distinctive sounds from each other,” she said.
The first three songs the audience hears “are sweetly and simply introduced — about young Ben and his two younger brothers and their father — and are about a more simple life,” Wasmund said. “In the middle, each song conveys a challenge, a struggle that Ben experienced from age 13 to his mid-20s, and each song furthers that along with the guitars.”
By the end of the show, with its more than a dozen original songs, “you get to hear how complex — how rich and even joyful — the sounds become,” she said. “By then, Ben has gone through a lot in a relatively short time. This show is just a really beautiful illustration of the complexity of life, and what it means to be aware and grateful for the people around you.”
Although it has meant being away from her own family, “As I have said many times, I have the best job in the world, working on this show,” Wasmund said. “Sometimes I am really ready to be done with a show, but getting to listen to Jake (Allen) performing so beautifully is a gift.”
She leaves The Lion after opening night in Eugene, with a quick stop home before beginning rehearsals for another show in Minnesota.
Now 40 years old, Wasmund started her theatrical career as a as a performer as well as a dancer and choreographer, “so I gradually changed to the creative side from the performance side,” she said. “I used my earlier experiences to become a director, and I now wholly identify as a director.”
She has seen audiences respond openly, personally, and appreciatively to the story line in The Lion.
“This show takes most people through an emotional journey, experiencing loneliness, betrayal, joy, fear, which most of us have experienced some version of in our own lives. I find that everyone seems to be very appreciative of it for being so authentic.”
So much so that many people come back multiple times to see it, she said.
As for Scheuer’s original songs, “There is something for everyone,” Wasmund said, “a couple of rock songs, love ballads, folk song, even a little bit of polka. It really runs the gamut.”
The skill that Jake Allen brings to the musical performance — his fingering and picking skills — “are hard to describe,” she said. “Currently across the world, there are only four guitar performers we know of who are able to do this show. “On top of that, the performer also has to be a solo actor and has to be approved to do this part.”
Wasmund considers herself fortunate to be able to work on a lot of shows, but The Lion has been “one of the top ones for the effect it has had on me. It’s been one of my most meaningful experiences ever.”
The Lion at Oregon Contemporary Theatre (OCT)
When: Evenings at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 10-11, 16-18, 23-25; matinees at 2 p.m. on Jan. 19 and 26
Where: 194 W. Broadway, Eugene
Tickets or information: $25 to $50, available online at octheatre.org or from the box office at 541-465-1506
