By Ron Fassler . . .
Walking into the theater for A Musical About “Star Wars,” you expect it will be funny and satiric (especially when the usher swipes your ticket and tells you to “get your nerd on”), so you’re well prepared for what’s in store. What it won’t prepare you for are jokes about Andrew Lloyd Webber’s recent flop Bad Cinderella, the Hell’s Kitchen cabaret Don’t Tell Mama, casting director Bernie Telsey and AMDA (look it up). If none of these references mean anything to you, yet you’re still intrigued enough to see an 80-minute show spoofing Star Wars, you can relax. There’s plenty of George Lucas-related comedy and lightsabers to keep things playful and enjoyable for the nerdiest of nerds. If Star Wars is, or ever was your thing, you may want to get into your TY-1300 Corellian light freighter and blast over to West 45th Street.
With music and lyrics composed by Billy Recce and a book co-written by Scott Richard Foster and Tom D’Angora, the target audience is both kids and adults. Co-directed by Michael D’Angora and Tom D’Angora, it’s nostalgic with a specific VHS vibe to it (if that makes sense). As conducted on the small stage of the recently spiffed up (new seats) AMT Theater, formerly the Davenport Theatre, its three-person cast consistently entertains. They are made up of two male actors (Taylor Crousore and Stone Mountain) who embody a pair of Star Wars re-enactors (if that’s what they’re called), trying to recruit a female (Maggie McDowell), into their fraternity. At first, she seems willing, but then she confides in the audience that she’s on a mission to take the men down. She’s an actor, but also an activist (or “actorvist”) who doesn’t believe Star Wars is “the greatest thing to ever happen in the history of the galaxy,” which happens to be the men’s mantra—they say it a lot. Of course, over the show’s duration, she is slowly convinced it is, and all ends happily, even though the men’s ultimate goal of being accepted into New York Comic-Con (“the greatest of all the ‘Cons”) doesn’t play out the way they first dreamed it might.
It’s all very silly and its goofiness is its charm. The songs are ditties, but also contain some clever lyrics, from time to time, which comment on current social issues with a wink and a smile. Taylor Crousore (the show’s other co-writer) and Stone Mountain (could that be a real name?) give it their all and sing with passionate intensity, comical in all the right ways. Maggie McDowell gets to soar on occasion with a great upper register and a good sense of timing, landing her jokes with aplomb. All are at their funniest in the show’s best number, which spoofs the title song of Hamilton using Star Wars characters and a very funny puppet. Again, silliness reigns, which is A-OK when everyone is on the same page, as they are here.
About five minutes before curtain, a small boy behind me asked his father in a tired and whiny voice, “When does the movie start?” His dad corrected him saying, “It’s a play. You’re going to see real live people in this show. Isn’t that exciting?” To which the boy responded in the same bland manner, “When does the show start?” I mention this only to report that when the “show” was over, he said to his father in a very loud voice: “That was great!”
The force was with him.
A Musical About Star Wars. Through September 2, weekends only, at the AMT Theater (354 West 45th Street, between Eighth and Ninth Avenues). www.amusicalaboutstarwars.com
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