Three times a ‘Musical’

Erika Courtney

It’s a musical… of musicals.

By Joe Brown

Friday, March 19, 2010 | 12:10 p.m.

Gleeks, show queens and folks who just like musical theater a lot: The Musical of Musicals: The Musical is for you. The melodramatic plot is shamelessly primitive: Threatened by her lustful landlord, ingenue June can't pay her rent–will the handsome leading man come to the rescue?

But as with many musicals, the story is just a framework for the songs—in this case, a mashup of five original mini-musicals, each performed in playfully parodic homage to the instantly recognizable style of an iconic Broadway composer. Getting affectionately tweaked: the homespun hokum of Rodgers & Hammerstein ("Corn"), the anthem-addicted divas of Jerry Herman ("Dear Abby"), the gaudy grandiosity of Andrew Lloyd Webber, the skin-deep stylishness of John Kander and Fred Ebb, and the angsty self-seriousness of Stephen Sondheim.

The off-Broadway hit has been adapted and directed by Josh Penzell, a UNLV MFA student, who beefed up the Nevada Conservatory Theatre cast, and calls Musical "a smart show."

"It's just not especially deep," he laughs.

— Originally published in Las Vegas Weekly