[title of post]

Whatever you say about SpeakEasy’s [title of show], you can’t say it’s not funny. I don’t even like contemporary musicals. The knock-off plots, simplified music, un-lyrical lyrics, gratuitous flamboyance, and high ticket prices don’t appeal to me, as much as I love the Golden Age Hollywood productions. But, [title of show] is the straight-up funniest thing I’ve seen in a while –well, maybe it’s not that straight. Through February 14th @ the BCA (~$50, $14 student rush, $30 gallery seats) SpeakEasy brings this recent off- and on-Broadway meta-musical to Boston with a local cast playing roles that were, in the original production, self-cameos. The script has been adapted by [title of show]’s creators Hunter Bell (book) and Jeff Bowen (music & lyrics) for regional productions such as this.

[Title of show] is about itself, tracing its own genesis, from an idea for a submission to the 2004 New York Musical Theatre Festival three weeks prior to deadline, to its run in the festival, to its off-Broadway run in 2006, and finally to its short 2008 Broadway run. It changed along the way to include all these subsequent productions and the spaces in between them. With each step towards Broadway, the creators/cast deal with various hurdles and personal conflicts and let-downs and struggles with what the show calls “vampires” (interior or exterior obstacles to creative expression and fulfilment). But, [title of show] is only meant to appear as the story of itself, since we’re watching a story that (to work) needs to be as contrived and edited-down as the Jersey Shore. As much as it operates with an MO more likely to be found in a performance art than a comic and commercially inclined musical, this isn’t a musical 8 1/2 (and, for that matter, Nine isn’t much of one either).

Despite its fundamental postmodernity, [title of show] is overwhelmingly concerned with whether or not its audience will get all the little bits of Broadway and pop culture trivia that pepper it, which have been toned down for us non-New Yorkers. The program includes an, albeit comic, irreverent, and self-referential, “[tos]ary,” the New York Times printed something similar in August, Bell and Bowen discuss it in interviews, and the Hunter character (here, Joe Lanza) obsesses over it within the show. As [title of show] gains popularity he worries about ticket-buyers without Broadway aficion. Maybe this is because musicals tend to be matter-of-fact and don’t depend on a historical and cultural background as much as plays or novels or really any other artistic narrative form. Most of the time on Broadway, all you really need is to have seen The Lion King and have some loose sense of the plot of La bohème. I was surprised Hunter didn’t worry the show was too gay.

Clockwise, from lower left: Jordan Ahnquist, Amy Barker, Val Sullivan and Joe Lanza (Mark L. Saperstein)

[title of show] is oddly inspiring, as it is a story of “making it,” without the second or third act tragic downfall typical of those stories. Susan Blackwell, one of the original cast members and one of the characters, will be making an appearance at the BCA February 6th holding something called the “Die Vampire, Die” Workshop. Based on one of the show’s numbers, the $100 thirty-person workshop teaches participants to allow their creativity and ideas to flourish through writing and performance. Perhaps it’s this ‘aspiring-insider’ aspect to [title of show] that’s responsible for much of its success. It’s funny for people that like musicals, funnier to those that love musicals, and funniest and powerful to those that (or once did) want to make and be in theater, because that group (that’s not an insubstantial portion of the theater going public) sees themselves, in one form or character or another, on stage here, living and coping with the dream.

Though short and oft interrupted by self-referential comments, Bowen’s songs are clever and catchy. Bell’s book might sometimes read like a Seinfeld episode, but really it efficiently communicates several years of events in ninety minutes that fly by. SpeakEasy’s production is strong, only lacking in its choreography. Joe Lanza (Hunter) surprised me with his singing voice. Val Sullivan (as a sardonically-singing Susan) nailed her character’s sarcastic and very far off-Broadway wit. Jordan Ahnquist (Jeff) and Amy Barker (Heidi) are also strong. Jeff Adelberg provides lush lighting that turns the Roberts Studio Theatre into a Broadway venue. Seághan McKay’s projections cleverly enhance Eric Levenson’s simple New York City whitewashed brick apartment wall of set and provide a campy animated backdrop for the bizarre number Monkeys and Playbills–if I described it, you wouldn’t believe me.

Joe Lanza and Jordan Ahnquist (Mark L. Saperstein)

Tagged as: musicals, SpeakEasy Stage