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Swimming Upstream: A Sex-Ed Escapade…

nytheatre.com review by David Pumo
August 15, 2005

Currently a freshman at Yale University, Marshall Pailet, along with his father, Al Pailet, began writing the funny, clever, and somewhat touching new musical, Swimming Upstream, when he was 15. The story—semi-autobiographical, I’m guessing?—is about Todd (Doug Kreeger), a misfit artsy high school student whose lifelong dream is to write a musical. When the school announces the first ever Judy Blick Baumgarten Initiatives in Health Award, Todd decides to write a musical about the life of a sperm. He gets up the nerve to ask Miss Popularity, Sally Jo (Jessica-Snow Wilson), to be his female lead, even though she has previously ignored him or worse.His competition for the health award is the egomaniacal and patently perfect Rod (Christopher Kale Jones), who basically plans on cloning himself. Jones also makes appearances in a wrestling outfit as Conscience McBadass, an arch enemy conjured by Todd’s insecure mind to beat him down just when things are going too well. Rounding out the cast are John Cameron Barnett, Heath Calvert, Andrew Grosshandler, and Matt Owen as the all-purpose backups. Running backstage to change costumes over and over again, they play Rod’s entourage, Todd’s singing sperm, and Jessica’s four girlfriends.The story is simple and occasionally a bit weak (why does Sally Jo suddenly fall for Todd and agree to do the show?). But there are lots of modern twists (a terrific laptop chat room scene) and plenty of edge (no, you have not seen a musical about sperm before). The dialogue is full of laughs, and the music by the young Pailet and lyrics by dad are strikingly well-written. It would be silly to single out anyone in the cast. All seven have beautiful voices, and the chorus members are as strong as the leads, and every bit as important to the show. Marlo Hunter’s direction and choreography, especially for the backups, is inspired and thoroughly delightful.Swimming Upstream is one of those Fringe shows that you can’t help imagining on a larger stage, with more expensive sets and mics that don’t go in and out. This is definitely a show with a bigger life ahead of it, and young Pailet is certainly a writer with a bigger career ahead of him as well. Both the show and Pailet already have all the heart they need.