“I’m Almost There” at Ancram Theaters Presents “The Odyssey” as an Immigrant Story

“‘The Odyssey’ will just keep showing you the world,” observes Todd Almond, who adapted the ancient poem into a modern one-man show, “I’m Almost There,” which he will perform at the Ancram Center for the Arts August 7-16.

For those of you who flunked 10th grade, let me summarize “The Odyssey.” Odysseus, hero of the Trojan War, wishes to return home to Ithaca, but is cursed by the god Poseidon, who conjures numerous obstacles—the dreaded Cyclops, Circe the witch, the alluring Sirens, etc.—to waylay the sailor. It takes Odysseus 10 years to reunite with his faithful wife, Penelope. In “I’m Almost There,” the nameless protagonist meets a man at a party, falls immediately in love, and after an awkward farewell, assumes they’ve broken up. But the man returns the next day to the hero’s apartment building, with a cup of fine coffee. The hero rushes downstairs to meet his lover, but encounters a host of neighbors, who entice him into their apartments with temptations—including a multilevel marketing scheme. Will our hero ever reach his Penelope?

Where there is anxiety, there is humor, and “I’m Almost There” is no exception. There’s also yearning, courage, fear, eccentricity. Almond doesn’t identify the neighborhood where his piece is set, but he lived for 15 years in the East Village, and pictures it there—in that refuge for artists and tattooed misfits.

A musical version of “The Odyssey” sounds profane, until you remember that the original poem was a musical—sung by itinerant poets accompanying themselves on the lyre. One of these poets (unless he’s fictitious) was a blind man named Homer. Almond remains at the piano throughout the entire show, accompanied by Noah Max Amick on electric bass and Erin Hill on harp and vocals.

This is Almond’s fourth adaptation of “The Odyssey.” The first was staged for Julliard students in 2003. The second was commissioned by New York City’s Public Theatre, and had a cast of 250, at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. The third was a musical called “Kansas City Choirboy” (2015) starring Almond and Courtney Love as boyfriend and girlfriend. The couple lives in a small town, where their contentment is ruined by Sirens luring the woman to the Big City. I happen to be a terrible gossip, so I couldn’t resist asking what Courtney Love’s like in real life.

“She’s the smartest person in the room; she’s read everything,” Almond recalls. “She can recite poetry to you. She never missed a show; she brought flowers to everyone almost every day. She was a dream.” Poor Courtney Love! When she pulls off her shirt in a McDonald’s, it’s national news, but when she behaves flawlessly, no one knows.

Almond grew up in the small town of Alliance, Nebraska. “My father is a great guitar player and singer, so instead of reading me bedtime stories, he would sing Beatles songs,” he relates. Almond attended the College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, receiving a degree in classical voice. Asked for his influences, he mentions no Broadway musicals, but rather Kate Bush, David Bowie, Laurie Anderson. And I hear the Elton John of Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road, where Bernie Taupin’s clever lyrics embellish Elton’s gliding melodies.

What is it about Homer’s epic that inspires him again and again? “’‘The Odyssey’ seems to contain nearly every type of human interaction,” Almond observes. “There’s love, there’s family, there’s rivalry, there’s the gods, there’s strangers. When we did it at the Public Theater in the park, we really ran with the theme of: ‘How are you treated when you’ve washed up on somebody’s shore?’ The story of immigration is in ‘The Odyssey.’”