The Big Bang
The Big Bang
Book by Jed Feuer
Music and lyrics by Boyd Graham
Directed by Jim Helsinger
With T. Robert Pigott and Philip Nolen
Orlando Shakespeare Theatre, Orlando FL</strong>
This just might be the funniest show ever performed in the Margeson Theatre. It’s high concept humor that never looses sight of its low brow roots, combining slapstick, sight gags, and jokes you might need a PhD in history to decipher. Jed (Nolen) and Boyd (Piggott) hijacked the swank Park Avenue penthouse of Dr. and Mrs. Lipbaum to plug a big budget, SFX intense musical that covers the history of the universe form the Big Bang to Health Care. Since the real show will run twice as long as the Ring Cycle (Wagner or Tolkien, take your pick) The boys are just hitting the highlights tonight, singing and miming the show in hopes of getting the price of a B-2 bomber to stage their over-wrought and over-written dream. There’s even room for product placement.
From the opening silent film introduction, complete with canapés and Hors D’oeuvres, to the rapid fire 20th century montage at the end, there was barely a moment the audience stopped laughing. The songs were untitled, but lyrics like “Free food and full frontal nudity” and “We’re Jews and we’re tired” nearly brought the house down. Mr. Pigott tuned himself into Nefertiti with a curtain and a waste basket, and later became an excellent southern bell with the same curtain and two open umbrellas. Like all good comedies, this one charges fearlessly into the land of political incorrectness, with Asian women and American Indians getting the jab as often as dead white guys. With the every-busy John DeHaas on the piano (I’ve seen him in 4 shows in the past month alone) the music always felt elegant, even if the lyrics drifted from silly to absurd. In an excellent display of conservation and recycling, just about every single prop on stage was put to unintended use from the telephone handset to a topiary tree. This show is absolutely delightful, and well deserved it standing ovation. Encore!
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