Edgar Allan Poe gets the rock musical treatment

High energy numbers may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of master of macabre, Edgar Allan Poe, but it’s really quite a cheerful vibe you get when you enter the world of “Poe — A Rock Musical.” 

With upbeat tunes, showy choreography and a broad approach to comedy, this musical is not so much chilling as showy, as the production blends fact, fiction and a pop-rock sensibility. 

Producer, originator and composer Todd Ortberg, who also wrote the book for the musical, tapped three local legends to help him create the score. Among them are two members of the New Standards — Chan Poling, of The Suburbs fame, who also wrote the music and lyrics for the History Theatre’s smash hit “Glensheen,” and John Munson, known for his work with Semisonic and Trip Shakespeare. Kenni Holmen also contributed to the score and served as arranger and music director.

At times, the lively beat and catchy melodies became incongruous with the thematic explorations of the script. Perhaps that’s intentional. Ortberg’s Poe, played by Justin Burk, is popular with his fellow soldiers and romantic with his love interest (the fictional character of Lenore, played by Vivian Kampschroer). 

In this production, Poe isn’t anti-social or sallow, as you might imagine him to be by reading his stories. (Interestingly, Poe’s character was famously maligned after his death by an envious rival, Rufus Griswold.) In Ortberg’s telling and Burk’s characterization, Poe is rather heroic, even as he grapples with vivid visions (even delusions), self-doubt and high pressure to succeed. 

Ortberg blends biography, historical fiction, and elements from Poe’s own writing for the book. Throughout the story, we see Poe grapple with his overactive and sometimes terrifying imagination, his hopes and dreams as an artist, and his romantic pursuits. 

As for the latter, the musical doesn’t get into Poe’s marriage to his 13-year-old cousin when he was 27, understandably. But it does bring out certain characteristics of the real Virginia in the fictional character of Lenore. She’s a writer herself, like Virginia, and is deeply supportive of Poe’s writing, as Virginia was. She also dies young, similar to Poe’s wife, who died of tuberculosis at age 24.

Kampschroer brings an empathetic presence to Lenore, and her duet with friend Sarah (played by director Autumn Toussaint) is one of the most successful in the musical. Her duets with Burk also play well, perhaps because they contrast with the bigger, brassier numbers and the more hammy portrayals of the other characters. 

For Poe fans, there are a few nods to Poe’s most famous stories, with the most extensive being “The Cask of Amontillado,” in a section that got the closest to illuminating the horror aspect of Poe’s writing. We also see elements from “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Masque of the Red Death,” “Annabel Lee,” “The Raven” and others. 

The musical feels like a light-hearted celebration of not only Poe’s oeuvre, but of the concept of artistic genius more broadly, with some catchy tunes thrown in along the way.

Two more shows left at Ames Center in Burnsville: Wednesday, Oct. 30, at 7:30 p.m., and Thursday, Oct. 31, at 7:30 p.m. ($54). More information here.

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