Theater Review: Evolution Theatre Company Kicks Off 2022 Season With Bubbly ‘Musical of Musicals’ – Columbus Underground

Evolution Theater Companys 2022 season begins this weekend with a rousing production of the fizzy, loving parody The Musical of Musicals: The Musical, with book by Eric Rockwell and Joanne Bogart, music by Rockwell, and lyrics by Bogart, directed by Joe Bishara.

Jonathan Collura, behind a piano on the side of the stage, leads the action as narrator and music director, offering wry commentary on the action while adroitly moving between rhythms and genres in a way thats as delightful as it is seamless. Matt Piper and Nat Harper play a series of young lovers (Pipers characters all named some variety of William and Harpers some shade of June). Tom Cardinal plays a landlord in each of the sketches, with variations on the name Jitter, standing for authority figures throughout the worlds of which were treated to a glimpse. Lisa Thoma covers all other adults the characters interact with, named withshades of Abby.

The unabashed delights of The Musical of Musicals come with the way Bogart and Rockwell stir together songs and wink at characters and themes across its five sketches, with a brief intro and outro. The opening sequence, Corn, takes its spine from Oklahoma and winks at the rest of the Rodgers and Hammerstein oeuvre, including a beautifully executed ballet with particularly strong work from Harper. Piper soars through the scores nods to the way R&H characters slide intoAmericana Opera, Looks like its time for a soliloquy, even as Cardinal and Thomas highlight the rough, lived-in rhythms that made that work so fresh and so often imitated.

The most arresting mash-up of elements for me was the Sondheim riff, A Little Complex, that slams Sweeney Todd and Company together with flashing hints of Sunday, Night Music, and a few others. Cardinal shines here and as Phantom Jitter in the hilarious Andrew Lloyd Webber poke Aspects of Junita in stellar showcases forhis rich voice and physical comedy.

The Kander and Ebb/Fosse sequence Speakeasy leads Chicago and Cabaret by the collar through a series of fun house mirrors, casting shadows of Spider Woman and other elements, again making excellent use of Harpers Dancing and the contrasting vocal textures of Harper, Piper, Cardinal, and especially Thoma in a show-stopping number.

One of the key elements that makes The Musical of Musicals as much fun as it is, is the sense of rough play. Anyone who loves something, like the art form of musicals, has just as passionate a list of things that drive us insane or widely beloved shows we hate and that acknowledgement, that grinning, playful sense of, Okay, this was ridiculous even before we turned the volume up, with exaggerated, extended leg movements in Jamie Markovich McMahons light choreography, with a raised eyebrow and a smirk from Collura, and with shared looks that nudge the elastic fourth wall but never quite break it.

The beauty of the voices and the fluid movements also keep the play grounded and amplify the cartoonish quality. Bisharas direction keeps things moving at a sometimes-breakneck pace but never gets frantic, never buries a joke. That fluidity has a perfect partner in Colluras encyclopedic knowledge of musical theater and the piano, moving between genres as easily as breathing. The Musical of Musicals is a delightful evening for people who love various stripes of musicals and have hated one or two.

The Musical of Musicals runs through May 7 at the Abbey Theater of Dublin, with performances at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday,8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and 2 p.m. Sunday. For tickets and more info, visit evolutiontheatre.org.

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Theater Review: Evolution Theatre Company Kicks Off 2022 Season With Bubbly 'Musical of Musicals' - Columbus Underground