John and Jen

Added to this is the factor of Lippa’s music and Greenwald’s lyrics (they share credits for the book). Both can be bright, incisive, strongly characterised and emotionally expressive. Equally, there are extensive passages where they slip into conventional harmonic, rhythmic, melodic patterning and generic, very plainly worded statements of the kind that do the two actors having to carry the entirety of the drama few favours. It is whole to the credit of James and Sharon that they are able to make us care so much about what happens to John and Jen, even when a lot of the material they have to work with does not make this an easy or a straightforward task.