[title of show] at the Grand Theatre

Last night I went to see [title of show] at the Grand Theatre and, once again, I was really happy to have the chance to see a show with which I was unfamiliar!  This musical about the writing of a musical is clever and funny (especially if you are a fan of Broadway) and I really enjoyed it.  Jeff (Jacob Barnes) and Hunter (Brian Cota) are two struggling writers living and working temp jobs in New York.  They hear about a new musical theatre festival and, even though the deadline for submissions is only three weeks away, they decide to enter with the help of their friends Susan (Ashley Coombs) and Heidi (Michelle Lynn Thompson) and a pianist named Larry (Jonathan McDonald).  As they struggle to write material for an entirely original musical, they realize that their conversations about writing the musical are more interesting than what they are writing and that becomes the show.  Once it is accepted by the festival, the show's subject becomes the process of mounting a show Off-Broadway and then transferring it to Broadway (including videos on YouTube called The [title of show] Show that you can actually find on YouTube).  It is so meta because Jeff Bowen (music and lyrics) and Hunter Bell (book) really wrote the show about their experiences with their friends Susan Blackwell and Heidi Blickenstaff and the four of them actually starred in productions both on and off Broadway with Larry Pressgrove as musical director!  It is so fun!  My favorite songs are "An Original Musical," about how hard it is to come up with an original idea (I loved the lyric that makes fun of turning movies into musicals), "Die, Vampire, Die," about refusing to listen to the doubts inside your head about your art, "Change It/Don't Change It," about refusing to abandon your original idea to make it more commercial, and "Nine People's Favorite Thing," about being proud of your work no matter what.  The song "Secondary Characters" also made me laugh (this show explores a lot of the tropes found in Broadway musicals).  All of the actors do a great job with the material and give energetic performances but I was especially impressed with McDonald because he plays the piano on stage.  Speaking of which, the audience is also located on the stage (it is a so-called Backstage Production) so it really feels like you are observing the writing process inside Jeff's loft apartment.  I was very pleasantly surprised by this show and I would definitely recommend it, especially to fans of musical theatre.  It runs at the Grand Theatre through September 9 with shows Thursday - Saturday (go here for tickets).

Note:  This show does contain a lot of profanity (in fact, there is a running bit about the need to clean up the language for families, tourists, and the ladies who see matinees).