[title of show] Rocks!

Last Sunday night my daughter Liz and I went to a preview of a Broadway musical entitled [title of show]. And before this turns into an Abbot and Costello routine, let me quote the show’s blurb. “[title of show] is a musical about two nobodies named Hunter and Jeff who decide to write a completely original musical starring themselves and their attractive and talented ladyfriends, Susan and Heidi. Their musical, [title of show], gets into the New York Musical Theatre Festival, and becomes a hit. Then it gets an off-Broadway production at the Vineyard Theatre, and wins three Obie Awards!”
[title of show] took its name from the form that Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen had to fill out for the NY Musical Theatre Festival. According to them, it was either that or “Rent with two t’s.” The show is funny, smart, and moving, a paean to musicals, Broadway, fame, and friendship. It celebrates the struggle, joy and pain of remaining true to yourself while trying to create something original.
So the show is about the show. And Jeff and Hunter are Jeff and Hunter in the play, and Heidi Blickenstaff and Susan Blackwell play Heidi and Susan. And, in real life, they are all besties. And the show is about their journey from all that blank paper to words and music, from an apartment to a festival to off Broadway to the Great White Way.
It is a show for anyone who loves musicals, who has ever been on a stage, however small, or who ever put on a show in the backyard when she was a kid.
Internet troller that I am, I had heard about [title of show] when it was downtown, and it sounded interesting, but it was one of those things that I just didn’t get around to doing. You know how it is. Even though Liz and I had a long-running love affair with the off-off Broadway production of “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” and have enjoyed many an offbeat production, what can I say? We were busy!
But then, last week, I got the email from Theater Mania, and I checked out their site, and lo and behold, there was the little engine that could, [title of show]! It was in previews on Broadway (!) and there was a lovely discount available! Irresistible! And so the love affair began.
The real beauty of [title of show] is that Jeff and Hunter have remained true to themselves and their original vision. One song in the play says that “they would rather be nine people’s favorite thing than a hundred people’s ninth favorite thing.” In the Playbill, Hunter says that they realized that a lot of their jokes were self-referential, but it seemed that the most specific they got, the more people loved it. Go figure.
It remains to be seen just how [title of show] will fare on the GWW (Great White Way), but the audience was beyond enthusiastic at our performance. It actually reminded me of the audience at the first time we saw “Rent.” Ninety percent of those in attendance were beyond themselves in raptures, while the other ten percent had wandered in unawares and had no idea what they were watching. I think the show has legs, kids.