Off-Broadway Review: 'Voca People' is a Wildly Entertaining Blend of Sci-Fi and Show Biz

The aliens have landed. Musically inspiring, inventive aliens, that is! The Voca People octet debuts Off-Broadway to rave reviews and family-packed audiences (smiling teens, too).

New York City to Planet Earth: "The Voca People have landed." Repeat: "The Voca People have landed." Prepare humankind for audio transmission. Correction: Make that audio transformation -- these aliens communicate in transcendent a cappella ways.

Yes, visually they do resemble a profoundly whitewashed Blue Man Group -- only instead of props, paint, and physical insanity, The Voca People (or "Vocas" for short) express themselves via sound: tongue-twisting percussive, string, brass, and bagpipe effects conjured through their cosmically-enhanced vocal chords.

Their most potent superpowers lie in song. Pick a genre, any genre: Through their intergalactic mind-melding skills, they are able to channel music in constant free-floating form from earthling brains and convert it into a cappella nirvana.

Discovered by Lior Kalfo and Shai Fishman two years ago, the Voca People have a back-story unlike any other musical group. But then, how often do aliens hit the global entertainment circuit?

Explains creator/director/choreographer Kalfo: "While sitting in an upstate New York farmhouse I heard a blast and saw a spaceship crash near the cows." He says once the extra-terrestrial crew of eight introduced themselves, (thankfully all survived!), they, or rather their spokes-alien Scratcher, revealed their musical mantra: "Life is Music and Music is Life." (Evidently, on their home planet, everyone communicates exclusively through music and vocal expressions.)

Impressed, Kalfo and Fishman were moved to help the displaced octet put together a show that would allow them to "spread their unique musical talents throughout the galaxy."

To date, Voca People has performed to sold-out houses throughout Europe, South America, and the Middle East -- but in the here and now, their current open-ended run Off-Broadway upstairs at the Westside Theatre marks the first time the group has performed in the U.S.

According to Kalfo, the show itself is based loosely on the Voca's crash landing on Earth. "It starts with an off-stage spaceship crash, followed by the Vocas coming onto the stage."

As the newcomers try to adapt to their new surroundings, they discover the microphone, a tidbit of technology they'd never encountered before. "They become excited as they discover how it enhances sound," Kalfo says.

As for the audience, as soon as the Vocas recognize they're not alone, they're somewhat afraid, "until they hear the music inside [the audience members'] heads." FYI: To restore their spaceship to working order, the Vocas require energy -- musical energy -- and the eclectic musical library floating about theatergoers' craniums is the perfect solution.

A wild blend of sci-fi and show biz, the production comes across as an interactive Off-Broadway play date, which explains why musical prodigies, fun-loving theatergoers, and sci-fi freaks "from five to 105" cannot resist the gravitational pull into the audio eddy taking place both onstage and in the aisles. We're talking beyond cool, beyond suspension of disbelief, beyond planet Earth.

"I love that we are appealing to different age groups," says Eva Price, one of the show's producers who finds herself impressed by how adept the cast is at homing in, participation-wise, on kids and families. "What we notice at each performance is that kids are eager to be involved. It's like an electric current running through the audience. They see one kid doing it and suddenly all the little hands go up."

Topping the list of kid pleasers is the interactive portion of the show known as "Bagpipes" during which the Vocas go into the audience, selecting six people to "become" musical instruments. And while the Vocas are actually producing the sounds, the effect for "the chosen ones" is one of an electric guitar, trumpet, drum kit, triangle, or bagpipes penetrating their bodies.

Recalls Price: "At one performance, a set of 8- or 9-year-old twins were among those selected, and you could see their eyes literally light up when they thought the sounds were coming out of them."

And that's only one of several anecdotes from Price's Voca vault, including a touching reference to a teen with Down's syndrome who the Vocas invited onto the stage one night. "His family thanked the stage manager after the show...he felt so included and happy -- it was really touching."

You Tube Covers

Meanwhile, Voca groupies, mostly pre-teens, have taken to YouTube in impressive numbers to post tribute videos to the eggshell-hued extraterrestrials (albeit sans costumes and makeup). The majority of these lip-sink homages stick to the Voca's signature version of "Bohemian Rhapsody," but at least one, "The voca people cover" (three big kids, one grade-schooler), goes for the medley -- with choreographed moves!