Watch the film not the musical, theatre critic says of Mary and Max

He's an adult with Asperger's Syndrome living in New York City and she's a kid from Australia.

And from both ends of the world united by paper pen and postage stamps, they are Mary and Max — unlikely pen pals and friends.

The book, Mary and Max, was made into a claymation film starring Toni Collette and Philip Seymour Hoffman in 2009.

Now, it's a musical debuting in Calgary for its world premiere. The show, Mary and Max: A New Musical, is being performed at Theatre Calgary until Nov. 11.

The Calgary Eyeopener theatre reviewer Jonathan Love spoke with host David Gray. This is an edited version of that conversation.

Q: How did this show come about?

A: It's a true story, which leads you to believe it's worth watching. A 10-year-old girl named Mary from Australia feels alone. Her mother told her she was an accident, which is a horrible thing to find out as a 10-year-old kid. And she has a brown mark on her forehead that she's teased about.

In an effort to connect with someone, she writes a letter to a random name in a New York phonebook — one of those ancient things.

And it's Max, who's a 44-year-old man who, during the show, gets diagnosed with Asperger's disorder, which gives a name to why he likes his life so structured. It's the story of a unique friendship over decades of pen-pal letters.

All you need to know about the friendship is:

• They both like chocolate.

• They both like a kids show called the Noblets, which is like the Smurfs.

• They both need a friend.

Q: Did it work?

A: When it comes to films transitioning to stage, this one was a little more more Spiderman than Shrek.

There's a magic that animation can bring to a reality that doesn't translate to stage.

The absurdity of some of the narrative pieces work well in animation — like the abrupt events of characters winning the lottery or being eaten by a shark — but it didn't really work in a lot of these moments.

At its best, I felt it was messy and disjointed. At its worst, it was some very talented performers trying to make some unbelievably bad choreography work to try to recapture the magic of a claymation film.

What it lacked most was a clear director's vision. I don't think this production had that.

Q: Any stand-out performances?

A: Yes. I'm pleased to say that the highlight of the show was young Mary played by Calgarian Katie McMillan. Wow, she can sing. Let me couch this with the fact that director Stafford Arima imported a whole bunch of Broadway connections to debut this. Anthony Galde as Max, who has multiple Andrew Lloyd Webber credits, and Nick Adams, who plays many zany characters in the ensemble, who tend to be more on point than others … to name a couple.

But Katie McMillan is refreshingly singular in this show. It gave Mary so much heart that I was sorely disappointed when the role turned 17 and was taken over by Lauren Elder.

Q: How was the music in this new musical?

A: There were wonderful musical moments, the pit orchestra really gave a real Broadway-feeling.

But I found that the composer, Bobby Cronin, who was the one to get the adaptation rights from the filmmaker, needs to trust the story a bit more. The music was too big too often for me. It was almost like every song was the pitch, so we had to throw as much at it as possible.

There was a chorus of players …who were all dressed in a gender-neutral uniform. Whether they were onstage or not, they were singing, their voices were heard during the climax of almost every song.

The Moon, in place of the off-camera narrator in the film, was used as a musical convention to merely add another voice to fill out some harmony to make it feel more big and glitzy and Broadway. It was overdone.

Q: Final thoughts?

A: I'm going to say brava to Katie McMillan as young Mary. What a performance. I hope our Calgarian cast gets some mentorship and will get future opportunities from this New York co-production.

I felt badly for all these actors having to "give it their all" to make this work. I felt like I was in the trenches with them. But I'm pleased that it was a paying gig for these talented actors. It's a unique story worthy of an audience. So, I'd highly recommend the film.