The same team that brought The Musical of Musicals: The Musical! to Toronto for the first time at the Fringe this summer is doing it again, now as a Mirvish production at the Panasonic Theatre, but only till January 5th, so get your tickets while you can. Featuring five mini-musicals, four morphing characters, one plot-template, and many laughs, this tongue-in-cheek love song to that most mockable genre—musicals—is an ideal cure for Seasonal Affective Disorder.
The show’s New York creators, Eric Rockwell (music/book) and Joanne Bogart (lyrics/book), first staged Musical of Musicals in 2004 and it ran off-Broadway in London’s West End. The show requires a capable and versatile group of performers, and that’s what you’ll get in this production.
During the show’s 95 minutes (including intermission), it resets approximately every 18 minutes and tells a new variation of the ridiculously simple story in a new style. The more musicals you know, the more jokes you’ll be in on, but even those with only a passing familiarity with the conventions of musicals (“we’re singing, because it’s a musical,” they sing) will enjoy the humour and music of this well-paced show, fast but never so fast that you miss the clever lines which come in a constant stream.
First they have a go at Rodgers and Hammerstein in a parody littered with references to Oklahoma!, The Sound of Music and other old favourites, with Big Willy (Adrian Marchuk) singing his heart out about the joys of corn. Then there's a striking shift to the style of Stephen Sondheim (Sweeney Todd, Into the Woods, and so on), with music, lyrics and sensibility taking a hilariously cerebral turn, prompting one character to sing, “It may not sink in 'til the third or fourth hearing.” The other three segments parody the works of Jerry Herman (Hello Dolly!), Kander and Ebb (Cabaret, Chicago), and everything Andrew Lloyd Webber.
The staging is utterly stripped down. Musical director Michael Mulrooney, seated at his onstage piano throughout the show, serves as narrator and one-man orchestra. The set is no more than an occasional stool or chair. Basic costumes are not so much changed as periodically accented. The characters are archetypes—heroic lad Willy, horrid landlord Jitters (former Nylons singer Mark Cassius), hapless lass June (Dana Jean Phoenix), helpful lady Abby (Paula Wolfson)—but each incarnation allows the actors to step in a fresh direction as the story gets transplanted from one context to another. It showcases not only musical styles but also the versatility of each cast member. They all take turns being meek, tough, ostentatious or just plain wacky.
Although the predominant mood is always levity, each style shift is comprehensive, and is primarily established by composition, Mulrooney’s playing, and the actors’ delivery. It's also supported by lighting (Beth Kates, lighting design), with suitably minimalistic use of the projection screen (Blair Francey, projection design) behind the actors. Every moment of the show is bursting with comical clichés in theme, lyric and dance. The choreography, by director Vinetta Strombergs and the cast, never gets too elaborate but is always just what is needed to exemplify whichever style is being targeted.
The strongest aspect of the show is its constantly funny lyrics. The voices are all strong and the energy never dips for even a moment. If one were fishing for a complaint, you could only say that there is no opportunity to decompress and regroup. There is a fresh showstopper ever few minutes.
$19-$79. The Musical of Musicals runs at The Panasonic Theatre until Jan. 5
Evan Andrew Mackay is a Toronto playwright and humorist who writes about culture and social justice.
