De-Composing

In a day and age when so many of our new musicals feed upon and often parody earlier musical styles (think Urinetown), along comes The Musical of Musicals — The Musical! to take that approach to its logical, hilariously nutty conclusion. Using the cliché of an evil landlord and the lovely young girl who can’t pay her rent, the creators of this new show at the York Theatre Company give us five different whacked-out musical variations on that plot, each written in the style of a famous Broadway composer. You might call it a more complex version of Forbidden Broadway; it should certainly appeal to the same audience, but one should be more than a tourist in the land of musical theater to fully appreciate all of the references.

Frequently inspired, consistently funny, The Musical of Musicals takes the work of each composer and throws it into a Cuisinart set on “chop.” For instance, sliced-and-diced pieces of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel, The Sound of Music, Oklahoma!, and other shows are turned into a comic casserole with a lovingly half-baked plot and tasty lyrics. Hell, there’s even a dream ballet — or rather a dream ballet send-up.

In addition to R&H, Stephen Sondheim, Jerry Herman, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and Kander & Ebb are given the business in this exceedingly clever production. Not all of the spoofs are at the same level of quality — the Webber piece is the only one that seems more nasty than loving — but, overall, the purposefully repetitive plotting helps to build gags that pay off with ever larger laughs as the show continues.

The Musicals of Musicals is done on the cheap; it features a spare but effective set design by James Morgan, expressive lighting design by Mary Jo Dondlinger, and bright, imaginatively derivative direction by Pamela Hunt. But its Eric Rockwell and Joanne Bogart who deserve the lion’s share of credit for this show. They not only wrote the witty book, Rockwell and Bogart respectively wrote (or re-wrote?) the witty music and the sensationally cockeyed lyrics, and the two of them also make up half of the talented, four-person cast that also includes the versatile Craig Fols and the lovely Lovette George. In the continuing role of the heroine, George particularly impresses with her stunning soprano and her game comic inventiveness, but the whole cast has a glow on — probably because they know they’re involved in a special project.

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Grin and Bear It

If anyone deserves a bear hug this Christmas season, it’s Ruby Rims. He just completed his 14th year of putting on the Teddy Cares shows, a series of benefits that fill the city’s hospital wards with teddy bears for thousands of sick, scared, and lonely children. Instead of a cover charge, the price of admission to these shows is a teddy bear; they’re hosted by Rims and filled with a roster of the best entertainers on the New York nightlife scene.

The night we caught the show in the Laurie Beechman Theatre at the West Bank Café, the theme was celebrity impersonators. (This must have had special meaning for Rims, who’s Queen of the Drag Queens.) Alison Briner as Bernadette Peters was a wow, and so was Rick Skye as Liza. The entire cast, playing an entirely different cast, was perfectly cast. The one notable non-impersonator in the company was Karen Mason, who has performed in each annual edition of Teddy Cares and who came through yet again. Rims and his stalwart and talented musical director, John MacMahon, played to a packed and appreciative audience — and Ruby Rims made Christmas just a little bit brighter for children of all ages.

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Brussel Sprouts

Barbara Brussell is one of this city’s most “live” performers, displaying a galvanizing energy akin to that of an exposed high-tension wire. She may short out from time to time, but that only adds to the sense of excitement every time she performs. Many artists rehearse their every gesture, word, and inflection to the nth degree; with Brussell, you never really know what you’re going to get, but you can be sure it won’t be artificially manufactured.

Her current show at Danny’s Skylight Room, The Piano Bench of My Mind, is an eclectic mix of songs that she has been sitting on (so to speak) and is finally getting around to performing. A sensitive actress, Brussell brings a depth of feeling to “This Nearly Was Mine” (Rodgers and Hammerstein, from South Pacific) coupled with “Once Upon a Time” (Charles Strouse-Lee Adams, from All American). What truly sets her apart from so many of her contemporaries, though, is her deliciously loopy sense of humor. She finds fresh ways into such familiar songs as “I Cain’t Say No” (R&H again, from Oklahoma!) and infuses less well-known tunes like “The Heel” (Robison-Beach-Ferre) with her excellent comic timing.

If she’s out of her vocal depth in a song such as “And This is My Beloved” (Wright-Forrest-Borodin), Brussell more than compensates with her gift for interpreting the work of some of today’s finest writers. She’s terrific when singing songs by the likes of Craig Carnelia (“I Met a Man Today”), John Bucchino (“If I Ever Say I’m Over You”), and another Bucchino tune with a lyric by Lindy Robbins (“Strangers Once Again”). A unique performer, Barbara Brussell continues indefinitely at Danny’s with late shows on Saturday nights; click here for details.