Singer-songwriter Benjamin Scheuer begins “The Lion” wearing a blue suit, a button-down shirt, white suspenders and nice shoes. The suit’s a touch small for him, and makes him seem like a little boy dressed to go to church.
You don’t really notice it happening, but by the end of this autobiographical song cycle, Scheuer has lost the jacket, undone the top button of the shirt, loosened the suspenders and gone barefoot.
For cities with a rich, supportive local music scene like New Haven — where Scheuer is performing “The Lion” through Feb. 7 at Long Wharf Theatre Stage II — seeing a set of personal songs about a singer’s life, health and philosophy isn’t really all that unusual. What makes “The Lion” special is the quiet theatricality of it all.
Scheuer’s a working musician who’s played everywhere from noisy coffeehouses to Royal Albert Hall. He clearly knows what a wondrous opportunity it is to be working in a space where the audience is completely quiet and attentive, where the bar is in the lobby and not near the stage, and where you don’t have to shout your songs and stories over the noise of conversation, espresso machines or televisions.
Scheuer embraces the calm. He makes a story that could be angrier — perhaps better accustomed to punk rock than to the talking-blues and folk styles he uses — and calms it done. When he doffs his jacket and shoes, he’s relaxed.
Scheuer is telling a story about his relationship with his family. The oldest of three sons, he bonds with his father over music, which they play together on guitars. His father becomes irascible at times, and young Benjamin responds in kind, leading to resentment, poor communication and no more guitar harmonies. Then a tragedy strikes. Benjamin feels, the way that one might when one has caused such a deep and personal rift, that it’s his fault. The remainder of “The Lion,” which is sung more than spoken, is about Scheuer’s coming to terms with his own feelings, then facing his own struggles.
The story has a strong structure: beginning, middle, end, loss, forgiveness, coming-of-age, catharsis, epiphany … all the elements of story-based theater. The musical aspects are equally solid. The songs aren’t all verse-chorus-verse, but they’re not random bursts, either. As the story circles back to Scheuer’s love of life and music, so does the music, with reprises and mature resettings of melodies that informed the more youthful parts of the saga.
The strongest songs are “The Lion” (which doesn’t contain the lion metaphor you might think it does, and is, instead, a subtle number about strength and character) and “Cookie-Tin Banjo” (which introduces key characters and sets a mood for the whole piece, but also is a jaunty stand-alone pleasure). Scheuer messes with expectations a few times. When he gets angry, he takes out an electric guitar (the other five instruments onstage with him are acoustic) and plays a lite-punk riff, but then he follows that with a love song on the same instrument.
A number of musicians, famous and otherwise, have attempted solo musical memoirs in the past 20 years or so; the genre emerged as much out of the confessional storytelling movement and poetry slams as from the music world. These shows, some of which have been devised by such heavy hitters as Ray Davies and Roger McGuinn, tend to be performed in clubs and concert halls.
Thanks to director Sean Daniels and open-minded theater-development places such as Goodspeed Musicals’ Festival of New Musicals (the latest edition of which is being held this weekend in East Haddam) and the Johnny Mercer Songwriting Workshop, autobiographical songs that Scheuer had already recorded with his band Escapist Papers were reshaped and made into a strong, fluid, harmonious and soulful folk-pop expression suitable for theaters. “The Lion” might be shorter and more sedentary than most theater shows, but it’s longer and fuller than most small music club sets. It knows where it is, what it’s about, and exactly how laid-back and melodic it wants to sound. Let it roar.
“THE LION,” written and performed by Benjamin Scheuer and directed by Sean Daniels, is at Long Wharf Stage II, 222 Sargent Drive, New Haven, through Feb. 7. Performances are Tuesdays at 7 p.m., Wednesdays at 2 and 7 p.m., Thursdays and Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 3 and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $30.50 to $90.50. Information: 203-787-4282, longwharf.org
