I had heard great things about this little tribute to musical theatre composers a while ago, and we happened to snag a pair of comps to tonight’s performance at the York Theatre Company.
The reviewers were right! It is excellently written and performed. A comedic homage to five different musical theatre composers, the show follows a simple plot line, and is performed five separate times, each time, in the style of a different composer. We start with the style of Rogers and Hammerstein, in which we open with a song about a cornfield. Funny southern accents abound, as do countless references to Oklahoma, Carousel, and The King and I. Plenty of heed is paid to the sexism of the genre. Next, they do the show in the style of Sondheim, in which all the characters sing in non-melodic patter songs, and everyone is crazy and disfunctional. The pianist is Sweeny Todd/George Seurat who goes on a murderous rampage of the disfunctional thirty-somethings living in his apartment building, one of whom can communicate with birds. References to Company, Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park, Sweeny, and Merrily were most evident. Next we had the Jerry Herman section, and having never seen a Herman show (Hello Dolly and La Cage aux Folles), I didn’t get the references too well, but it was still funny.
After intermission was the Andrew Lloyd Weber section. We had Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Phantom, Cats, Sunset Blvd, Song and Dance, and even a Starlight Express moment (a character enters on rollerskates and collides with the piano). Clearly a challenge for the writers, as the characters in these shows and the styles of the shows are all so different, but they made a joke about how commercial he is and it managed to all tie together. Then someone got hit with a falling chandellier.

Finally we had the Kander and Ebb section. This was not the best written segment, but their mocking of Fosse’s dance in Cabaret and Chicago made it the funniest to watch. Over-the-top gay/german/pianist/MC narrating everything.

Finally, we closed with an homage to the end of “A Chorus Line.”

This show, even for my less informed musical theatre viewer companion, is so engaging and energetic that you can’t take your eyes off it. It is so fast paced that when you’re getting all the jokes, its really hard to keep up as fast as they’re flying at you. Having never seen Forbidden Broadaway, I assume its the same idea, but this is so much more clever. FB rips off the exact music and changes the lyrics. These songs are all new compositions in the style of certain composers. And damn, did this composer get the styles down perfectly. Eric Rockwell managed to perfectly mimic these great masterminds (most impressive was the Sondheim section) while never really stealing anything, and adding his own flair. The lyrics by Joanne Bogart were clever, witty, and again, perfectly mimicked yet not stolen. Again, Sondheim was the cleverest section. Her handle of language and complexity of rhyme scheme was clearly learned from the master himself.

The performers are great. A cast of four, one whom plays most of the music on the piano, but when he’s in a scene, another actor takes over for him. Lovette George is one of the most versatile performers I’ve seen lately. A dancer, comedienne (physical comedy too), legit soprano and belter, this chick can do everything! Craig Fols plays the male lead, while Eric Rockwell is the piano guy and Joanne Bogart is the older woman. While not a strong singer, she deserves to be performing her own brilliant work, and is forgiven for any shortcomings.

This show is a must-see for the musical theatre enthusiast or performer. And its fun and entertaining cabaret for the musical-novice. See this show.

The House of Yes is one of my favorite movies, and I’ve always wanted to see a staged production of the play on which it is based. So when a production cropped up the other day on AE, knowing nothing about it other than what play it is, I decided to go.

The Godlight Theatre Company performed the show at the Wings Theatre in the West Village. There was no set at all. A low budget, minimalist production. Which is hard to deal with because the whole show takes place in an opulent mansion. But hey, I understand budgetary constraints.
The acting, on the whole, was solid. Sarah Cook as Jackie was a far cry from the insanity of Parker Posey but she did a really nice job with such a difficult, fascinating character. JT Patton as Anthony seemed more of a film actor, he had problems projecting. But his character work was great. As was the work of Mike Rider (Marty) and Flannery Foster (Lesly). They were all real and believable. The only actor whose work I didn’t altogether appreciate was that of Asta Hansen as Mrs. Pascal. She played the role so over-the-top haughty and fake that she didn’t fit in with the style of character with the rest of the actors. Perhaps it was a directorial choice, but she seemed to be in a different world than the rest of them. Which actually makes sense, in the play’s context. Who knows.

Over all, a pretty good, minimalist production. The dialogue in the film is taken word for word from the playtext, and as I know the film quite well, there were no surprises for me here.