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“[Title of Show]” at St. Ambrose University Studio Theatre

St. Ambrose University Studio Theatre
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Oh, boy, do I have good news for you. If, for whatever reason, you were unable to make it to The Black Box Theatre’s offering of “[title of show]” last summer you can go back to school, namely St. Ambrose University, to take in it’s rendition of this super entertaining show. My schedule was jam packed this past weekend so Director Thomas Alan Taylor allowed me to sit in on Wednesday’s tech rehearsal and – wow! - what a treat. Had I not known this was a tech rehearsal, I would have thought it was their opening night.

In the event you also missed my prior review, allow me to quote...well, myself:

“I defer to Wikipedia for its concise synopsis.  It states:  ‘The show chronicles its own creation as an entry in the New York Musical Theatre Festival, and follows the struggles of the author and composer/lyricist and their two actress friends during the initial brief (three-week) creative period, along with subsequent events leading up to the show's production.”  It is, essentially – stick with me here –  “a musical about two guys writing a musical about two guys writing a musical.” All the characters are real people and the show is about the real occurrence.’

It effectively goes from the initial creative process to submission of the script, to being selected to perform at the festival, to production off Broadway, to production on Broadway, to eventual decline as the theatre world moves on and the subsequent disappointment and despair resulting from that and then its soaring resurrection.  Some of the wacky innovative musical numbers include “Untitled Musical Number”, “I Am Playing Me”, and “Filling Out the Form”.

Hats off to the entire cast which consisted of Tommy Ratkiewicz-Stierwalt as Jeff the composer/lyricist, Zach Ulmer as Hunter the book writer, Julia Beltz as struggling Broadway actress, Heidi, and Megan Rohn as Susan the wish-she-was an actress office manager. Additional kudos as well to Colin Evers as the very talented keyboardist, Larry.

I strongly encourage you to take advantage of this second chance to see this unique show. I readily admit I enjoyed it every bit as much as BBT’s rendition. This show does contain some salty language and adult content so it is not a show for the kiddos, but adults will have a roaring good time.

[title of show] continues at St. Ambrose University’s Studio Theatre located in the Galvin Fine Arts building, Friday and Saturday, November17 and 18 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, November 19 at 3:00 p.m.

I’m Chris Hicks…break a leg.