Theater review: ‘If/Then’ at AT&T Performing Arts Center

— In the recent record-breaking billion-plus Powerball drawing, one comparison to odds of winning was the chance of your meeting -- out of all the people on Earth -- your soulmate. That seems silly, considering soulmate connections are more often more controlled, correlating to your specific geography and habits of leaving your home—whether to the grocery store, a bar or the airport.

Paths taken by choice, luck or randomness is the idea behind the musical If/Then, with music by Tom Kitt, book and lyrics by Brian Yorkey and direction by Michael Greif — the team that gave us the Pulitzer Prize-winning musical Next to Normal. It ran for a year on Broadway, closing in March 2015, and already appears in Dallas for a one-week engagement at AT&T Performing Arts Center.

Set in New York City in “the recent past,” the central character is Elizabeth (Jackie Burns), an urban planner approaching 40 and who has just relocated from Phoenix, where she taught her craft in college.

Orbiting her are her neighbor Kate (Tamyra Gray, of American Idol fame), Kate’s girlfriend Anne (Janine DiVita), Elizabeth’s best friend Lucas (Anthony Rapp), and Elizabeth’s former flame and new boss Stephen (Daren A. Herbert).

Into this Spirograph of connections enters hunky army doctor Josh (Matthew Hydzik), who spots Elizabeth in the park and makes the first move; and then David (Marc Delacruz), Josh’s colleague who he sets up with Lucas, who is bisexual and also has a thing for Elizabeth.

Confused? It’s actually easy to follow. In some ways, it’s like a much less gritty, grown-up version of Rent where most of the characters have better jobs (except the one played by Rapp, who was in the original Rent) and more focus.

They also have more baggage, as comes with the slang term “adulting”, which means they have varying levels of messiness, which makes them accessible.

At nearly three hours and with none of the spectacle most ticket buyers of Broadway tours are used to, it’s at least 30 minutes too long. That becomes more noticeable considering that while the poppy songs are pleasant, they’re pretty homogenous. With a few exceptions, such as The Moment Explodes and You Don’t Need to Love Me, they don’t register long in the memory.

But, while the concept of “what if” moments changing life trajectories isn’t new, it’s freshly and engagingly told. And there are a number of genuinely surprising twists.

Rapp has become a better performer, as age will do, and Gray is long past the point of being just another American Idol contestant who can capably sing; she’s a darn good actress, too. Burns has as strong of a voice and succeeds at making the case for a character who is not so likeable, even though she’s at the center of, or adjacent to, every relationship in the show.

Mark Wendland’s set design of easily moving bridges and set pieces, on a turntable, is fluid and unobtrusive; if a bit sterile for New York and Brooklyn.

There are traits in each of these characters that audience members who survived their 20s will understand. The odds of finding a musical with so many characters worth rooting for can sometimes feel lottery-level.

But, here it is. Jackpot.

This story was originally published January 28, 2016 at 4:24 PM with the headline "Theater review: ‘If/Then’ at AT&T Performing Arts Center."