Watching "[title of show]" is like playing a 90-minute version of "Jeopardy! Musical Theater Edition." While the plot is interesting and the music lively and entertaining, the audience spends most of the show trying to keep up with a never-ending stream of references to obscure musicals, actors and actresses and New York City landmarks.
"[title of show]" is the brainchild of librettist Hunter Bell and composer-lyricist Jeff Bowen, who were friends and struggling artists in New York in 2004 when they heard about the New York Musical Theatre Festival. With the application deadline only three weeks away, the pair resolved to submit whatever they could write, and the result was "[title of show]" -- a musical chronicling the experience of Hunter Bell (Joe Lanza) and Jeff Bowen (Jordan Ahnquist) trying to write a musical in three weeks for the New York Musical Theatre Festival. If it sounds meta, that's because it is.
The show centers on the premise that the audience is viewing the creation of the piece as it unfolds. Bookended by the opening lyric, "A D D D D F sharp A will be the first notes of our show," and the closing lyric, "This is the last line of our show," the play never tries to create the illusion of most musicals.
"[title of show]" is consistently self-referential and fully aware of its status as a show within a show. The gimmick works for most of the production; while it occasionally becomes heavy-handed and clumsy, its self-awareness provides many of the show's numerous punch lines.
Nowhere is the show's shtick clearer than in the song "Secondary Characters" -- possibly the catchiest number. As Hunter and Jeff leave the stage following the play's final festival performance, Susan (Val Sullivan) and Heidi (Amy Barker), the show's secondary characters, are left onstage alone for the first time. What follows, of course, is the secondary characters singing a song about how exciting it is that the secondary characters are alone on stage singing a song. The number is indicative of the wink-wink attitude of the musical and its frequent pokes at its own quirks.
While the meta structure and self-referential nature of "[title of show]" are certainly present, they are not as noticeable and pervasive as the frequent allusions to Broadway and life in New York City. From the lyrics of "Monkeys and Playbills," which literally contains a list of obscure Broadway musicals, to the insertion of the ubiquitous number 525,600 from "Rent" in the penultimate number, "Nine People's Favorite Thing," the show is littered with inside jokes and Broadway parlance -- so many, in fact, that the playbill contains a glossary so that the average viewer isn't completely lost.
Apart from this glossary, Bell and Bowen make little effort to appeal to an audience beyond avid musical theater buffs. This avoidance of the average viewer proves to be a detriment to the show. "[title of show]" too often becomes a struggle to keep up with the references and to feel like part of the "in" crowd. Instead of entertainment, the experience proves to be a bit too much like theater homework.
The Speakeasy Stage Comp-any's musical performances are often less than engaging and suffer from a lack of precision. The show's finest musical moments are undoubtedly its lush four-part harmonies, and it is here that the company's voices fall short. The harmonies are inconsistent and rarely seem to lock, and a show-stopping musical rendition never materializes. Although moments of musical excellence do occasionally appear, the overall sense is that the score is better than the performances.
The Roberts Studio Theatre is the perfect venue for an intimate musical like "[title of show]." The black box theater is small enough that the company of four actors and a keyboardist (who has the occasional speaking line) fill the room with sound. While a larger show might seem cramped, the small cast of "[title of show]" is well-suited to the venue, and the sparse set of four chairs and a keyboard never make the stage appear cluttered.
The cast makes efficient use of the space, using the entire stage and exploiting the distance between characters to highlight both tension and joy. A particularly poignant moment comes when Hunter storms off the stage in anger but is still visible to the audience in the wings; while he is clearly separated from his fellow cast members, the audience can still view his emotional distress.
"[title of show]" is a musical for people who love musicals. For everyone else, it's a hit-or-miss experience. Witty dialogue and a fun score draw the audience in, but a reliance on frequent allusions might push many audience members right back out.
