REVIEW: “[TITLE OF SHOW]” @ GEORGE STREET PLAYHOUSE

I’m a sucker for plays about the theater. As a fan, I love the references to other plays and productions, not to mention the inside jokes often included in the script. And if the self-referencing play is a musical comedy, so much the better! You’ve probably guessed that I really liked [title of show], now onstage in a charming production at George Street Playhouse in New Brunswick.

[title of show] involves Jeffrey, a composer, and Hunter, a writer, who decide to write a “play about two guys writing a play about two guys writing a play” for submission to the New York Musical Theater Festival (a real, honest-to-God NYC festival held in September) only three weeks away. Four actors, four chairs and one accompanist is all that it takes to put on this show, but the play’s gestation lasts much longer and is quite difficult. Foremost is the duo’s decision to write an “original” musical, difficult to do because they do not have a film, play or novel upon which to base their efforts. And although the show runs just 100 minutes, the time covered from suggestion to Broadway production covers more than a year of writing, rewriting, facing the demons (here called “vampires”) that stand in the way of success, changing details to attract a wider audience—all the while remaining collaborators and friends.

To help write and perform in [title of show], Hunter and Jeffrey recruit two female friends/actors: Susan, a former actor turned “corporate whore” office manager to pay the rent, and Heidi, an actress whose auditions have only landed her roles in the chorus/ensemble or as second understudy to the understudy. The fact that Jeff and Hunter have never penned a show before doesn’t help matters much either.

With music and lyrics by Jeff Bowen and book by Hunter Bell (yes, the two guys portrayed onstage), [title of show] addresses the creative process: how to write with a pencil on a blank paper when your computer has died (right, Rudetsky and Maynard); the source of one’s inspiration; whether to include a dream sequence so popular in classic musicals; how to fight those thoughts or persons who sabotage your dreams; and how to make the resulting product more palatable for group sales or the little old ladies who come to matinees. All of it delivered with great humor and a bit of self-deprecation. And Matt Lenz’s direction is never fussy—or even evident—so smoothly does one scene flow into another. He’s come up  with some nifty and agile choreography too.

Seth Rudetsky and Tyler Maynard are terrific as Jeff and Hunter, respectively. Rudetsky’s website designer Jeff is a grammar freak, a composer who balks at changing even a minor detail to satisfy producers who might be interested taking the show to Broadway. Maynard’s Hunter is a “porncastinator,” a television fiend who would rather watch the new season of The Bachelor or the film Doc Hollywood (which runs ad nauseum on TBS) than sit down and write. But he also wants the fame and notice from having a show on the Great White Way, so he is forced to sit down and confront the blank legal pad to write “An Original Musical.”

Susan Mosher as Susan and Lauren Kennedy as Heidi  (left, with Mosher, Rudetsky and Maynard) are delicious as the two actors, originally strangers, who forge a sisterly bond throughout the process. Mosher is especially fine leading the others in “Die Vampire, Die” in which they confront their inner demons, and Kennedy reminds them (and the audience) of what life was like as they attempt to find “A Way Back to Then.” Finally, the duet between the two women as “Secondary Characters” is sweet and true. Jesse Vargas, who plays Larry the pianist, provides first-rate accompaniment and even gets a few words of dialogue in edge-wise.

Sound production values, something Jeff and Hunter worry about, abound in this production. R. Michael Miller’s set might not look very elaborate, but along with the projection design by Michael Clark, a bare rehearsal hall turns into a myriad of locations. Philip Rosenberg’s lighting and Michael McDonald’s basic but evocative costumes complete this fine production.

You’re probably wondering about the play’s title, [title of show]; well, I won’t spoil your delight at finding out what it means. Theatergoers have seen a spate of plays about the theater this season, A.R. Gurney’s The Fourth Wall, Tom Stoppard’s The Real Inspector Hound and the more recent Moonlight and Magnolias, which is about writing the script for Gone with the Wind in five days. [title of show] is a worthy and delicious addition to the genre. If you love musicals and wonder how the original ones came into being, [title of show] will lift the curtain and give you a peek at how it’s done. These guys may not be Rogers and Hammerstein or Jerry Herman and Stephen Sondheim, but their “play about two guys writing a play about two guys writing…” will make you laugh and appreciate what goes into writing a Broadway hit.

Note: some of the language in the show—mostly common four-letter words used primarily for emphasis or punctuation—might offend theatergoers, especially those of a certain age. But as one character puts it, “Those little old ladies who come to matinees have seen it all—death, divorce, you name it—so they won’t be offended.” I agree.

[title of show] will be performed Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 PM (no performance Thanksgiving, November 26) and Saturdays and Sundays at 2 PM and 7 PM through December 12. A Buy One Get One Free offer is available for November 21 at 7 PM; November 23, 24 and 26 at 8 PM; and November 24 at 2 PM. Use THANKSGIV as the code when ordering online. The George Street Playhouse is located at 9 Livingston Avenue in New Brunswick. Parking is available in the parking garage behind the theater on Kirkpatrick Street ($5 flat fee). For information and tickets call 732.246.7717 or visit GSPonline.org.
Photos by T. Charles Erickson.