The Musical of Musicals: The Musical!
The Musical of Musicals: The Musical!
Music by Eric Rockwell
Lyrics by Joanne Bogart
Book by Eric Rockwell & Joanne Bogart
Directed by Michael Edwards
Musical Direction by Chris Leavy
Winter Park Playhouse, Winter Park FL</strong>
I think this show is getting funnier – or at least I’ve seen it so often I’m getting off book. This brilliant parody takes a simple plot line (I can’t pay the rent – you must pay the rent – someone has sex) and interprets it in the style of five different giants of musical theatre. While there are plenty of laughs in the show for the neophyte, it helps if you majored in musical theater like those random people who laughed all by themselves. Maybe it’s the change of directors; Michael Edwards is all about Broadway, while Jay Hopkins (who directed the two previous versions) leans more toward the frenetic improv style.
Let’s expand on the plot. Natalie Cordone plays the Ingénue June-Junita-Juny. Short of cash, she must trade her virginity for bad financial planning. Opposite her we find evil landlord Jitter (Kevin Kelly) with his leases, ominous musical numbers and knives. He’s the nasty golem lurking inside all Norwegian bachelor farmers, and his depravity is so complete he’ll never get the girl, even if reads the instruction manual they all come with. Advising June is Earth Mother Goddess Abbey (Kate O’Neil). Whether she’s shelling peas or swilling raw gin, she’s the closest thing to good advice on stage. Lastly we get the scattery Todd Allan Long as Big Willy and all his permutations. He’s the good side of males, and always has a God in his Machine to save Natalie in the final scene, just before the big blow out number.
I can’t begin to list the puns, but hers a rundown of the show – The first riff is a redo of Oklahoma (Rogers and Hammerstein) with its dream sequences, corn fed wholesomeness, and Daylight Savings Time driven plot twist. It’s the longest of the acts and since the audience is fresh and doesn’t know where we are going all the tropes from elaborate dance numbers to unexplained romantic shifts to a song about clam dip get a thorough exploration. Next we delve deeply into the mind of Stephen Sondheim. I agree with Long when he exhorts: “You need to see this 4 times to see the light.” Here’s where the most obscure jokes lurk: Sondheim’s output is huge and not all of it gets performed very often, so “Company” and “Merrily We Roll Along” jokes get off the leash here and run free, sniffing the audiences’ crotch and peeing on the piano. Jerry Herman’s Mame/Dolly complex brings us up to intermission – there’s not much plot here but the costumes are fabulous. No, like this: FaAaAaB-you-LUST! Try again, but gayer. Work on it.
By now we know the drill and the show picks up pace after another round of drinks. Andrew Lloyd Webber writes the best songs in the “Phantom of the Pampas” mash up. While he never drops a chandelier on Jesus Christ or takes the masks off the alley cats, he does get to use the rarely seen upper balcony of WPPH. We wrap with “Speakeasy” by Kander and Ebb. Here women wear fishnets, the MC always speaks in three languages, the bootleg gin tastes like peppermint and the sex…well, the sex… You had to be there to really appreciate the sex. But its all-in good taste, and an exhausted Chris Leavy keeps up to speed and calls out random stage direction. It’s an education, but the final takes place in a bar. Belly up!
For more information on Winter Park Playhouse, please visit http://www.winterparkplayhouse.org
