[title of show] by Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell

Gentle, often quirky musical theatre fun is the order of the night at Sydney’s Seymour Centre in [title of show], a new intimate musical.

[title of show] is an original musical that tells the true story of two guys writing a musical, in three weeks, for entry into the New York Musical Theatre Festival, aided by their two actress friends Susan and Heidi. Extended to reflect the journey following that original Festival version, the extended show now features the subsequent Off-Broadway and eventual Broadway journeys of this delightful little musical.

There’s a delightful fly on the wall feel to [title of show], encapsulating the meetings between the two writers and their friends, the four original cast members, as they wrote, then performed the show in its various incarnations.

Simplicity is a great joy of [title of show] - the set needs just four chairs, though this production adds several window frames to good effect.

Performed by a cast of four, with single keyboard accompaniment, this is one of those productions where everything is down to the individual and collective talents of the cast – in this case the terrific ensemble of Blake Erikson, Jay James-Moody, Lizzie Moore and Keira Daley, with musical director and keyboard player Paul Geddes also a very real presence throughout. They don’t disappoint.

Musical theatre tragics will love the in-references to just about every Broadway flop, numerous Broadway divas, etc. – but there’s a story of friendship and chasing your dreams that will work for far broader audiences.

The score has many delights. My favourites rank as Die, Vampire, Die! – about the demons which haunt the creative process, Nine People's Favorite Thing – (putting the title in context, I’d rather be Nine People's Favorite Thing than a hundred people’s ninth favorite thing) and Secondary Characters, when the girls, left onstage alone, express themselves without authorial involvement.

If I have a criticism, the blackouts for the answering machine messages which punctuate the evening slowed the pace unnecessarily, where snappier production choices were possible.

Production company Squabbalogic is a breath of fresh air on the Sydney musical theatre scene, having now introduced several small scale American musicals.

A separate Melbourne production, the Australian premiere, proved so successful that it played a return season at Theatre Works in St Kilda in August 2010. Hopefully Sydney audiences will be equally supportive.

Neil Litchfield

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http://www.squabbalogic.com/