The new musical “Between the Lines” does battle with itself over being another “Dear Evan Hansen” or a brand-new “Purple Rose of Cairo.” Fortunately, the Woody Allen in the creative team wins. (Sorry, I still watch some of Woody’s masterpieces.) “Between the Lines” opened Monday at the Tony Kiser Theater.
Just as fictional characters want to escape from a movie in “Purple Rose,” the Prince (Jake David Smith) and a few of his comrades in fairytale land lament being stuck in a book having to repeat the same plot wearily ever after. When “Between the Lines” follows these fantastical types, the book by Timothy Allen McDonald and songs by Elyssa Samsel and Kate Anderson are, to use a Disney cliché, absolutely enchanting.