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10/12/2017 12:01 AMIrreverent and absurd, laced with obscenities, taking potshots at everyone from Christians and Jews to both Hollywood and highbrow theater, oh, and did I mention, musicals? I Hate Musicals: The Musical is not typical fare at the Ivoryton Playhouse where it is bringing a blush to the faces of many in the audience, that is, if it doesn’t have them rolling in the aisles with laughter. It is that funny.
The newest stage comedy by Mike Reiss, writer and producer of TV’s The Simpsons, Reiss’s other plays include I’m Connecticut, produced at the Playhouse in 2013, which poked fun at his home state (he grew up in Bristol).
In I Hate Musicals Reiss combines old-fashioned slapstick humor with biting satire and theater of the absurd to poke fun at contemporary culture and the human condition. New music composed by Walter Murphy is sprinkled throughout, mostly familiar Broadway musical and pop hits with new lyrics that range from clever to silly, for example, “I Love New York” has been transposed into “I Hate LA,” and in a spoof of Sondheim, “Bring in the Clowns” is now “Where are the tunes? There ought to be tunes.”
Directed by James Valletti with Michael Morris’s musical direction, the one-act, 90-minute production moves fast and furiously with the majority of the comic routines hitting the mark. The cast is splendid across the board—as both comic actors and vocalists.
The star of the show is Alvin (Stephen Wallem) a disgruntled TV writer, who, suddenly finding himself in his 50s, also finds that his successful career is dried up. He’s turned to writing serious theater, which may feed his soul, but not his bank account. And so he’s returned to Hollywood to pitch a new idea for a sitcom to his old boss, Diane (Amanda Huxtable).
But an earthquake strikes, leaving him buried up to his neck in rubble—a clever nod to Beckett’s Happy Days nicely juxtaposed with Diane trapped under a desk, only her red shoes sticking out like the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz.
Wallem is wonderful as the existential hero doing a life review in his state of entrapment. Known for his role as Thor Lundgren in Showtime’s Emmy-winning Nurse Jackie, we can empathize with his character’s dilemma. Not sure if he’s in a post-apocalyptic world or hell, Alvin strives to make sense out of an absurd existence—whether he is philosophically pondering, in Seinfeld-ian logic, the little things, like why adults started eating cupcakes “at $4 and they’re so small” and “When did they start putting stickers on apples, wouldn’t we know they’re apples?”...to the big questions of art, religion, relationships, the meaning of life.
Huxtable, the only woman in the six-person cast, plays four roles and delineates them so well, it’s hard to believe it’s only one actor performing as the tough, jaded TV executive; the dim-witted Brie, Alvin’s ex-wife, although she’s the weakest of the characters—ridiculously one-dimensional; the Virgin Mary with a Boston accent; and Mom, Alvin’s sweet dead mother, who’s so ditzy that she remarks that she had Alzheimer’s for 15 years before anyone noticed.
Veteran Ivoryton actor R. Bruce Connelly is well tuned to his role as Alvin’s agent, Lee Rosenblatt, a Billy Crystal sound-alike, as he checks in on Alvin from his Hawaiian vacation. Will Clark plays several dark characters, including, Alvin’s invented dad, a pompous Yale professor of drama; Will Clark plays Alvin’s real (dead) dad, a nice, no-drama insurance salesman—he also plays Jesus; and Sam Given is ludicrously funny as several characters including a singing Sigmund Freud.
Michael Morris sits is in a corner playing piano, as “Musician.” Not sure what the point is, perhaps a device to get a live musician out of the basement and onto the stage.
The magical, surreal quality of the production is enhanced by Elizabeth Cipollina’s tongue-in-cheek array of costumes and wigs; Daniel Nischan’s Hollywood office turned earthquake ruins, and Marcus Abbott’s dreamlike lighting.
As cynical and edgy as it is, I Hate Musicals ultimately has a positive message about being kind and compassionate, not only to other people—but also to yourself.
Amy J. Barry has been writing about Connecticut professional theater for more than 25 years. She is a member of the Connecticut Critics Circle. (ctcritics.org).
Performances of I Hate Musicals: The Musical continue through Sunday, Oct. 15 at the Ivoryton Playhouse, 103 Main Street in Ivoryton. Tickets available by calling the box office at 860-767-7318 or visiting www.ivorytonplayhouse.org.