For a Rice Krispie Treat that
is sweet, crunchy and tasty, with a recipe that is clever, irreverent and fun,
look no further than the latest offering at Spirit of Broadway Theater in
Norwich. From now until Sunday
September 30, you are invited to sit in at all the backroom drama and comedy
and free-for-all nonsense as well as the blood, sweat and tears that go into
writing a musical for Broadway in the new millennium.
Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowman,
with a little help from female friends, are challenged to write a musical for
the New York Music Festival, with only three short weeks to meet the
deadline. The result is the ambitious,
frenetic, fast-paced and forward thinking (title of show). The name refers to the space at the
head of the application where title of show belongs.
Not only do these two
collaborators/composers win the contest, they take their show to off-Broadway
and then, to that most sacred of all places, Broadway…and we, the audience, get
to go along for the bumpy ride.
Hunter, creatively and
manically drawn by Corrado Alicata and his bosom buddy Jeff, a dedicated and
determined Paul Lietz, enlist the aid of two show business friends Heidi, a
bubbly Shauna Goodgold, and Susan, a happily neurotic Jessica Ferrady, to meet
their goal. With a trusty silent
partner Larry, a talented Dan Brandl, on piano, the quartet decides to write a
musical about…writing a musical.
They drop names and plays like gumdrops on the forest floor, allude to
everything from monkeys to Mame to Marcel Marceau, and to Shrek, Shakespeare,
Sondheim, sequins and Sedaris, pay homage to Wonder Woman and Broadway and even
sing a crazy and delightful song about Vampires, and dead ones at that. Brett Bernardini expertly directs this
mad, musical romp that went on to receive a Tony Award nomination in 2009 for
Best Book of a Musical.
For tickets ($30, college
students with ID $25, students $20), call Spirit of Broadway Theater, 24
Chestnut Street, Norwich at 860-886-2378 or go online to www.spiritofbroadway.org. Performances are Wednesday and Thursday
at 7 p.m., Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.
Discover for yourself the magic
formula as well as all the hard work, creativity and genius that go into the
penning of a successful show. OMG!
Get your jazz hands ready!
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