Not Your Mom's Musical Theater

Not Your Mom’s Musical Theater’s popular tour of the off-Broadway hit The Musical of Musicals: The Musical! will be touring northern New England February 11-13, 2016. This hilarious satire by Joanne Bogart and Eric Rockwell was called “A Gift from the Musical Theatre Gods!” by TalkingBroadway.com. The show takes a simple plot – June, the ingenue, can’t pay the rent and is threatened by her evil landlord – and creates five different delightful musicals from the same story, each written in the distinctive style of one of musical theater’s most popular composers. 

The laughs are non-stop as the performers tackle Rodgers & Hammerstein (complete with a dream ballet!), Stephen Sondheim (where the landlord is a tortured, artistic genius who slashes the throats of his tenants), Jerry Herman (a splashy star vehicle), Andrew Lloyd Webber (a rock musical that borrows from Puccini) and Kander & Ebb (set in a speakeasy in Chicago).

Audiences that love musical theater will love all of the inside jokes, but there is plenty of popular humor that will be understood by all audiences – and it’s also a great way to condense any of the musical theater you’ve missed!

This remains Not Your Mom’s Musical Theater’s most popular show to date, and they’re delighted to bring it back to life next winter. The show is staged simply, with four performers and a pianist, simple mics, basic costumes and props. A small stage or staging area is fine, as long as there is a “backstage area” or space to create one with a curtain. The show works extremely well in intimate theater or cabaret settings and has been a hit with high school students, college students and adults of all ages. Although theatrical lighting can be used, the show has been performed with great success without anything but a bright wash on the performing area. 

Theater critic Michael Curtiss reviewed the show on opening night. You can read the rest of it here.

“Make no mistake: this isn’t hollow, mean-spirited satire just for the sake of satire; THE MUSICAL OF MUSICALS: THE MUSICAL! is an affectionate homage to an art form that’s endured for well over a century, one which honors while it gently pokes fun at the time-honored traditions of Broadway….

The laughs don’t just come from the pastiche of songs that come at the audience with varying degrees of silliness; it’s the very talented cast and their deadpan spoofs that cement the production, and elevate TMOMTM into the heights of hilarity….  

These actors are fearless in how they embrace the physical humor, and very much in their element in bringing the comedy to an intimate yet enthusiastic and appreciative audience. Couple this with the fact that they’re all gifted singers and dancers, and you have a cast that gives one hundred percent in terms of the impact they have. 

As the four morph from persona to persona, they have to not only keep the farce fresh, but the energy levels consistent so that the show doesn’t flag. Which they do; it’s impossible to stop laughing once these four get you started.  TMOMTM rockets from start to finish, fueled largely in part by the non-stop guffaws powering it, thanks to this quintessentially clever quartet of comedians….

As done by Not Your Mom’s Musical Theatre, THE MUSICAL OF MUSICALS:  THE MUSICAL! is one of those rare gems: a well-written, well-played show that has plenty for those who see it, but which leaves them wanting more.  Don’t miss it.”