Tragedy! (A Musical Comedy)

This show re-envisions Shakespeare’s bloody, awful Titus Andronicus as a musical comedy. The plot follows that of the Bard’s original:
There once lived a good and virtuous Roman general named Titus Andronicus. One day, Titus made the mistake of sacrificing the wrong prisoner to the gods, and it wasn’t long before the prisoner’s mother became empress of Rome and let her Moorish lover find entertaining ways to kill Titus’s sons, rape and mutilate his daughter, and exile his entire extended family from Rome. Not to be outdone, Titus went crazy and baked her sons into pies.

The original story welcomes seventeen original show tunes, including the rap "You Can’t Spell Moor without B-L-A-C-K", the gospel hymn "I Have Done Thy Mother", and "Revenge is a Dish Best Served with Pie!" Sarcasm, satire, situational irony, highbrow literary references, and sophomoric cracks provide a robust body of humor for a wide range of audiences.

Tragedy! (A Musical Comedy) is presented as part of the 2007 New York International Fringe Festival.