Singing. Dancing. Dream sequences. Topless people… and vampires. Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen, the brains behind the one-act musical, [title of show], sure know how to give the people what they want. The latest KTS production of [title of show], directed by Jasmine Hare, was slow to start, but managed to deliver the goods.
[title of show] is a meta-musical. That is, it’s a musical within a musical about a musical. Written by Hunter Bell with music by Jeff Bowen, [title of show] is about two guys (Bell and Bowen themselves) who try to write a whole musical in three weeks, and where that musical takes them. Jasmine Hare’s vision of Bell and Bowen’s aural extravaganza certainly garnered some hearty laughs, but at the Nov. 22 show, the humour fell flat in parts, hindering the show from what could have been an uproariously funny and quick-witted 90 minutes. That being said, though, by the end of those 90 minutes I found myself completely swept up in the drama of a musical trying to be a musical that can make it to Broadway.
Upon entering the theatre, the audience is greeted by a sparsely designed set– just four chairs and a piano against a plain curtained backdrop. A small cast of four breaks through the curtain and launches into song. Such a small cast with so little in the way of props to work with demands a high level of energy from each actor every second of the show. The actors made a concerted effort to maintain this vim and vigor throughout the play. In parts, though, it felt as though the plot dragged on, and throughout the show the dialogue could have been a bit snappier—but this could have been opening-night jitters that were rectified in subsequent shows.
All of the actors put on impressive performances, tailoring their quirky mannerisms to shape their characters. Sean Young and Dumaresq de Pencier as Jeff and Hunter Genny Whalen simply shone in her role as Heidi, one of the gal pals Hunter and Jeff recruit to be in their musical. Stephanie Haller in the role of Susan, the other half of the female duo, took a while to warm up to – often her physical humour felt off kilter at the beginning, and her energy, while consistently upbeat, was sometimes disproportionate to the plot. Haller won me over in her duet with Whalen, “What Kind of Girl is She?”, a number in which the girls aired their insecurities about each other to the audience – it was thoroughly relatable and a moment of vulnerability for the characters.
In fact, some of the best moments of [title of show] were not the ones that struck the funny bone – although the show was chock full of riotous cultural references, wacky interludes and inside jokes with the audience. The story gives a knowing and completely accurate nod to those awkward, funny, and usually unremarkable experiences that pepper the day-to-day lives of people our age.
Sometimes these moments express subtle, sad truths, like in “Die Vampire, Die!” in which the cast sings about a vampire that is “any person or thought or feeling that stands between you and your creative self expression.” Sometimes it’s just about being “nine people’s favourite thing than 100 people’s ninth favourite thing.” These are the exact platitudes and clichés [title of show] goes so far to avoid and mock, but these lessons are so slyly inserted between Kardashian references and curse words that by the end, I hardly noticed myself cheering the characters on, hoping that it would all work out.
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