There's a new theater company in town

By Meredith Deliso

This show stinks — and we mean that in the best way possible.

The newly formed Brooklyn Players Community Musical Theater will be putting on a production of “Urinetown: The Musical!” — a satirical comedy about public bathrooms that takes on the legal system, capitalism, social irresponsibility and musicals themselves.

In the Tony Award-winning comedy, a terrible water shortage forces a town to make due with public toilets — and their mandatory fee becomes a source of unrest among the poor. When they’re faced with fee hikes, the unrest reaches a fever pitch.

“The show has an amazing sense of sarcasm and satire,” said the revival’s Park Slope-based director Max Arnaud. “It sends up social unrest and hypocrisy of power and wealth so expertly that I wanted to be able to do it with as straight a face as possible. That’s where the comic gold really comes out. And it has awesome singing and dancing in it.”

Plus, the bare-bones musical proved a good starting point for the nascent theater company.  

“It’s a show you can do on a shoestring budget and still make it look good,” said Arnaud.

Theater founder Corinne Goodman started the company for local talent that doesn’t have any New York theater credits, but wants to still get their foot in the door.

“For people who either used to do theater, sing or dance and are looking for a place to do this, there’s nothing like it,” said Goodman, a Park Sloper who  runs the children’s Brooklyn Players Summer Program and stars as Penelope Pennyworth in the show.

And if the words “community theater” rub you the wrong way — don’t let them, said Arnaud.

“You might except a bunch of half-assed machinations going on on stage, people having fun that you support, and maybe pity a little bit,” said Arnaud. “But this is a collection of unbelievable talent.”

“Urinetown: The Musical!” at the Gowanus Arts Building (295 Douglass St. between Third and Fourth avenues in Gowanus, no phone), April 8 at 8 pm, April 9 at 2 and 8 pm, and April 10 at 2 pm. Tickets $15-$18 and can be purchased at www.brooklynplayers.eventbrite.com. For info, visit www.brooklynplayers.com.


Photo by Tom Callan

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Theater review: Nothing 'Drowsy' about this show

By Meredith Deliso

The mousy man in the Broadway memorabilia-filled apartment just wants to be entertained by a story and a few good songs.

And when he’s feeling blue, nothing cheers him up quite like his favorite musical — “The Drowsy Chaperone.”

When the man drops the needle onto a cast album to this fictional musical, characters enter his apartment and the show begins.

“The Drowsy Chaperone,” of course, is not a fictional musical, but an actual one. And its ingenious show-within-a-show construct helped it win the Tony for best book in 2006. But beyond the clever staging, this homage to bygone musicals — the ones with overtures, rousing numbers, and, of course, a happy ending — is filled with all of those things.

The Gallery Players’ new production would certainly not disappoint its narrator, thanks to a plotline right out of one of his cherished Broadway hits. In short, Robert Martin, an oil tycoon, is about to marry Janet Van De Graaff, a Zeigfeld-esque showgirl who’s quitting the stage once she says her vows. Her producer, Mr. Feldzieg, can’t afford to let that happen, and neither can Janet’s guardian, the “chaperone” of the title, who keeps a flask in her furs and a saucy line at the ready. This being a send-up of 1920s musicals, obviously mistaken identities, gangster jokes, spit takes and over-the-top numbers ensue.

At the helm of the ensemble, Craig Treubert is extremely affable as the man in the chair, even as he regularly interrupts the show with commentary. As Robert, Eric Weaver is a quadruple threat — he sings, acts, tap dances, and even skates. The drowsy chaperone may be the narrator’s personal favorite, but Edward Juvier easily wins the audience over as the ridiculous Lothario Adolpho, earning laughs in his entrance alone.

It’s an uproarious production that revels in playing with its construct — at one point, the man’s record “skips,” causing the cast to repeat a dance sequence until remedied. Another big number gets cut short by a power outage.

Not all aspects are as winning. The gangsters’ pastry puns got old fast. Feldzieg and a dim-witted showgirl, Kitty, yelled most of their lines, but it was more grating than funny. A bad line isn’t funnier if you say it louder. And some of the charm of the big budget Broadway

production — especially the way the actors entered from inside the refrigerator or from off the bookshelf — couldn’t be attempted here.

But the show is so charming and the cast so talented that those are minor grievances. And it’s selling well, so get your tickets now if you want to be taken away by this highly entertaining production. Because, in the end, aren’t we all just the man in the chair?

“The Drowsy Chaperone” at the Gallery Players [199 14th St. between Fourth and Fifth avenue in Park Slope, (718) 832-0617], through Feb. 20. Tickets $18 ($14 for children and seniors). For info, visit www.galleryplayers.com.

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What it's all about

The musical “Reefer Madness” is based on a 1938 film originally titled “Tell Your Children,” which was made by a church group to warn folks that weed ruins the lives of unsuspecting teens. Soon after the film was shot, it was picked up by the exploitation circuit — a nod to its campy nature and overall ridiculousness — and retitled “Reefer Madness.”

But “Reefer Madness” the movie truly became a cult classic in the 1970s, when it was re-released by the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws to give stoners one more thing to giggle about. The musical version was written by Kevin Murphy and Dan Studney in 1998, and had a brief run Off-Broadway in 2001. It was even made into a Showtime movie in 2005.

Don't miss a production of the musical by the Gallery Players, opening this Friday.

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