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Photo by Don Kellogg

Wednesday, April 5, 2006

[title of show] - off Broadway

Witty, sarcastic, young, full of energy, and what you would think would be the most boring topic in the world instead sizzles at the Vineyard Theater! Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell present a new musical written by them, about them, and for them. They are cute, they are funny, and they are on stage acting out a play for a musical theater festival about two cute and funny boys writing a play about two cute and funny boys trying to write a new musical... Ok - you get it? Art imitating life... Life imitating art?

Clever dialogue, catchy lyrics and music - they even gave the piano player a few lines in the show ("It's ok, we cleared it with the union", they exclaim!). They obviously rail against the establishment (but I'm sure that either of them would take the lead role in Beauty and the Beast if the price was right)!

It's out there - for sure. Struggling artists, wacky friends, zany circumstances abound. I liked the comedy around some of the scenes just "ending" to black. Someone clever must have written the lighting queues too! Quite a few of the songs were catchy - including "Nine People's Favorite Thing" (I'd like to be nine people's favorite thing rather than 100 people's ninth favorite thing), "Monkeys and Playbills" (a very clever use of old flop musical titles - one after the another strung together in a whole song and scene), and Montage/Photo Shoot" (change it, don't change it).

It's been extended - and there's a good reason - you'll laugh and you'll enjoy! Wander down to the Vineyard Theater on E.15th and catch these crazy boys and girls while it lasts.