Interstate explores queer life with pop score, plenty of heart

Photo by Rich Ryan

Interstate is a joyful, messy ride with a trio of characters trying to find their place. It’s at turns funny, tragic, heartfelt, and at times a bit unsure of its footing. Just like growing up, or being in a band. Or coming out.

Created by Melissa Li and Kit Yan, the world premiere musical now running at Mixed Blood Theatre takes us back to the now halcyon days of 2008, where an Asian queer band from New York City vans it across the country in search of their diffuse online audience.

Adrian is a singer who leaves, promising her girlfriend to stay in touch and her mother that she’ll get her law school application in on time. Dash is a poet who has become an online hero to other transgender folks looking for a community. He isn’t just out to see the country – he wants to stitch a community together.

As they cross the heartland, we see the impact the tour has on Adrian and Dash’s relationship, and the one they are having on their listeners. We see this primarily through Henry, a teenager transitioning to become a man; a difficult prospect in his small minded small town.

Li and Yan based the musical on their own tour from 12 years ago as Good Asian Drivers. There are a lot of touring stories here -- Interstate is a shared bill with a puppet show short of being full Spinal Tap – but they are often shown through the lens of gender and sexual identity.

That comes through especially in Kai Alexander Judd’s performance as Dash. The character is learning how to be a “man” on the fly, and has absorbed some less-than-savory lessons, which comes to a head in a South Dakota bar where he first, kisses his musical companion without permission, and then “man ups” against a couple of yokels.

The behavior shocks the pair, and it causes the kind of break-up drama you expect in a band story. Adrian, you see, has label suitors who want her as a solo act. The twists are somewhat predictable, but the end result is not. 

Much of that is down Henry, whose transition – which takes him from Kentucky to the queer Mecca of San Francisco – gives the story its real heart. Much of that credit can be laid at the feet of Sushma Saha, whose touching, nuanced performance gives all of the diffuse parts of Interstate greater focus.

Even when the show takes detours into internet trolls, bad reviews, and harsh audiences, it doesn’t lose its cross-country heart. The music is largely composed of everyday modern pop hooks that will fade from the memory by the time you get home from the theater, the lyrics – and the overall story – stay with long after the final bows.

Interstate runs through March 29 at Mixed Blood Theatre.