Sorry to register my disappointment with this production, after my last wonderful experience at this theater with The Women of Brewster Place. Unfortunately, [title of show] plays like a clever SNL routine which was unwisely expanded into a full length movie. While parts of the show are extremely funny, great stretches are long and tedious, and after a while the 'lets make a musical about making a musical' conceit just gets tiresome. Much of this self-referential material was already mined for greater comedic effect in shows like Spamalot. The cast has good-enough voices, though I can do without Micah McCain's huffing and puffing throughout the show, but they don't display much emotional range. They run through the show like a High School pep rally, but it still seems like a very long 2 hours without an intermission. Some of the songs are well-written and delightful, but the rest seem like filler material. Plus, haven't I heard that rhyme of 'joker' and 'mediocre' before? Is that a reference (which this show is just chalk full of)? Or subconscious plagiarism? BTW, as an aside, I love the review here which says they should expand it to a full set and orchestra. That rates up there for me along such boneheaded Goldstar reviews as the one of 'Gypsy' which noted that the musical had nothing at all to do with gypsies . . . .

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One of the things that’s rare on the stage is a truly original musical; that is, a musical that isn’t derived from some previous source material, such as a book, movie, play, or song catalog. If you look on Broadway, a truly original musical is something rare indeed. This review is about an original musical.

Back in 2004, two friends—Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell, were trying to come up with an idea to submit to the New York Musical Theatre Festival in three weeks. The idea that they hit upon was something remarkably meta: a show about two guys writing a show about two guys writing a show. In other words: they wrote about themselves writing the show... and the result was “[title of show]”, which is having its premiere Los Angeles production at the Celebration Theatre in West Hollywood.

The show really does tell the story of its creation. Two Broadway-geeks (Jeff and Hunter) want to submit to the festival, and realize that their playful conversations are more fun than any fictional ideas, so they run with it. They bring in two of their theatre friends (Heidi and Susan) and an orchestrator (Larry), and off they go. The result is a curious mishmash that illustrates the creative and development process from the birth of an idea to the point it reaches Broadway, and along the way numerous popular culture, and even more Broadway show references are thrown around just for fun. Once presented at the festival, the show creation didn’t end, for it was updated to reflect its subsequent life Off-Broadway, on the Internet, finally getting to the point where it was mounted on Broadway (and thus, it contains some songs not on the Off-Broadway Cast Album).

As with any meta-discussion, the show plays on a number of levels. The basic story of its creation is entertaining, although there could have been some tightening in the post-Off-Broadway portions, where it got a bit dark and slow. The continuous barrage of obvious and non-obvious references is entertaining to the theatre-geek like me, but probably totally missed by much of the audience. This particular production seemed to emphasize the gay theatre vibe a bit more—perhaps this is because one of the missions of the Celebration theatre is to present LBGT works, and Jeff and Hunter are gay. Of course, if you’re a straight theatre geek you squirm a bit, especially when they go on about the collection of Playbills and Programs that they have (and yes, I must admit to keeping all my programs as well). The music of the show is quite entertaining and engaging, although only one or two of the songs work well outside of the show: “A Way Back to Then” and “Nine People’s Favorite Thing”. The last song is perhaps the mantra of the show... and perhaps a good mantra for life: “I’d rather be nine people’s favorite thing than 100 people’s ninth favorite thing.”

Production-wise, the show was very strong, with minor weaknesses. I truly liked the actors playing Jeff and Heidi, Michael Joyce (understudy for Jeff, who was on last night) and Carey Petersæ. Both were great singers (I particularly enjoyed Peters’ voice—what is it about actresses named Peters....) and great actors. It was just a joy to watch their faces and their enjoyment of doing this piece. Jennifer R. Blakeæ was great as Susan in the acting department, although her voice needed to be just a bit stronger to compete with Peters’ voice. Micah McCain, as Hunter, was good in the acting and singing, but again the problem for me was vocal: there was just something in his voice that didn’t work right. Lastly, in the backround was Gregory Nabours as Larry. He was great on the keyboard, as well as being quite funny in his few lines. Most importantly, this cast was having fun with the show—this is something I always enjoy seeing and find infectious. If the performances come from the heart and the internal joy and are not just rote, everyone wins. That happens in this production.
[æ denotes members of æ Actors Equity ]

Technical-wise, what is there to say. The set is four chairs and a keyboard, which doesn’t leave much for the prop designer (Michael O’Hara) or the scenic designer (Kurt Boetcher) to do. Similarly, the clothing is current-day street clothes, meaning no extensive sewing for Raffel Sarabia, the costume designer (although based on the songs, I expected Heidi’s looks to be a bit *more*. The lighting, designed by Matthew Brian Denman, worked well. The sound design by Veronica J. Lancaster was primarily amplification of the music and some sound effects; I found myself wishing either the keyboard was less-amplified or the music was more-amplified so that I could hear the words clearer (although admittedly this could be because the sound was tuned for the front, as opposed to the sides where we sat).

The production was directed by Michael A. Shepperd (assisted by Nik Roybal), who did a great job of bringing out the joy of this show and translating the page into appropriate movement and expression. The movement and choreography was by Ameenah Kaplan (assisted by Jeffrey Landman, who normally plays Jeff, as Dance Captain). The music director was Gregory Nabours. Mercedes Clanton was the Production Stage Manager. “[title of show]” was produced by Tijuana Gray and Jim Halloran, and Erick Long (Associate).

“[title of show]” continues at the Celebration Theatre through the end of August (August 29), and is well worth seeing. Tickets are available through the theatre’s ticketing site as well as through Goldstar, although note that (a) Goldstar is currently sold out, and (b) the Goldstar seats are on the side.

Dining Notes: Dinner before the show was at one of our favorites: Zeke’s Smokehouse, which is about a block away at LaBrea and Santa Monica. This is a wonderful BBQ restaurant; highly recommended. If you don’t want to hassle the street parking, eat at Zeke’s and just park at the center—parking totals around $7.50. Dessert was at IcePan at the same center, an interesting ice-cream place where you pick the dairy (non-fat, low-fat, whole milk or soy milk), the flavor, the mix-in, and they make the ice cream in front of you. No pre-frozen ice cream; they make it on an ice-pan. Quite light and quite good.

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I found this show pretty cute and kind of darling in its own scrappy and dreamy way.

Other reviews have rightfully noted issues with the musical itself (two, maybe three, numbers lack character and quality; it is perhaps overly long, as stretches feel a bit thin), as well as this production specifically (musicals are tough in such small spaces, so for me it wasn't just the keyboard that needed to be turned down, but the singers themselves who could adjust better to the intimacy of this room; the Brewster Place women did a much better job of this; although a strong cast, almost none of them capture the genuine, obsessive, very real drive and desperation of these characters, and yes, they almost all flail in the less jokey/more earnest scenes).

I absolutely disagree with one or two assessments of Micah McCain: this guy owns this role. He's a very charming, overflowing bull-in-a-china-shop, always a bit too much, but always in the right way...meaning very, very funny. He's broad enough at times to veer near community theatre mugging and schtick, but he's electric and very alive. He's the kind of performer I wish there more of these days: ballsy, risky, and downright in danger of total humiliation...and thus always on the cusp of pure inspiration (think Lady Gaga). He is probably the least convincing of the four in the more 'serious' scenes, but overall, this performer possesses real and overwhelming talent.

Quite frankly, I enjoyed the heck out of this show and production. Celebration Theatre continues to impress me. And when the show gets a little slow, just glaze over a bit, trusting that it will get clever and amusing again.

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I saw the play on Broadway and loved it! The soundtrack is a staple in my car and on my ipod so I was a little nervous about seeing this production and having it taint my love of the show. This production was good and I liked it, I can't rave about it though. All the comments about the keyboard drowning out some of the lyrics is true. That should be an easy fix and since I saw the second preview, maybe they are still working on it. Micah McCain will hopefully grow more confident in the role, he might be good, just not there yet. The rest of the cast gave great performances. As for this production, it lagged in the second half and as mentioned by others ran longer than the posted 90 minutes. That plus the very warm theatre kind of zapped the energy of the performers and the crowd towards the end. I do reccommend this production but suggest you don't walk in comparing it with the broadway version or even other more recent offerings at the Celebration Theatre.

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