BWW Reviews: POTTED POTTER at The Bushnell is Mischief Mangled

POTTED POTTER: The Unauthorized Harry Experience - A Parody by Dan and Jeff
Written by Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner
Directed by Richard Hurst
at The Belding Theater at The Bushnell, 166 Capitol Avenue, Hartford through May 26
www.bushnell.org

What do you get when you meld the whiz-bang, condensed hilarity of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) with the cultural tsunami that is J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter septology? If you find out, let me know, because it is most assuredly not the cumbersomely titled Potted Potter: The Unauthorized Harry Experience - A Parody by Dan and Jeff.

Running over the course of two weekends at The Bushnell's Belding Theater through May 26, what could have been a brisk 75 minute romp through the beloved Potter oeuvre, becomes a tedious slog longer than the camping section in Book 7. Does one have to be a purist to enjoy Potted Potter? No, in fact it is probably better if you are not. If you live and breathe the world of Hogwarts, you are bound to be disappointed as more time is spent clowning than condensing the seven novels.

Does one have to be familiar with the stories to follow along? Sort of, I guess. It would make it more enjoyable for certain. As someone who really loves the books and films, it didn't help make it more entertaining. Rather, it made the whole affair more dispiriting. By the end, I was revisiting the three unforgiveable curses and discovered a fourth: excruciatis.

It doesn't take a pensieve to see that I didn't like Potted Potter. That does not mean, however, that the other members of the audience did not. Children, in particular, were having a grand time at the performance I attended. Filled with non-stop gags and schtick, the show is fairly ideal for young people with limited attention spans. A lot of adults were enjoying it, too. To each his own, I guess.

The production certainly traffics on the affection people have for Harry, Hermione, Ron and their ilk. Much like One Man Star Wars, One Man Lord of the Rings and Cuff Me! The Fifty Shades of Grey Unauthorized Musical Parody (or its similarly-shameless twin Spank! The Fifty Shades Parody), Potted Potter is a rapid-fire cash-in trading on a pop-culture phenomenon. The fact that the final book in the series was published six years ago and the final film issued in 2011, adds a slight sense of staleness to the whole endeavor.

The two creators of the piece, Daniel Clarkson and Jefferson Turner, are no longer appearing in the show and have been replaced with Gary Trainor and Delme Thomas. In the straight man role, Trainor mainly narrates and plays the titular boy wizard. Thomas plays the goofy Laurel to Trainor's Hardy. Thanks to slovenly writing, Thomas manages to both know nothing about the books while at the same time knowing enough to play all the ancillary characters in the series.

Trainor is an affable and agile performer, getting appropriately frustrated with his wacky co-star. Thomas, clearly an audience favorite with the younger set, serves up a somewhat annoying performance delivered with a shrill voice and a ham-handed way with jokes. To be sure, there are some funny bits in Potted Potter, but overall neither of these hard-working actors is strong enough to shore up the piece's weaknesses.

None of the books get their due, particularly Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which is dispensed with in an unintelligible disco number at the end of the show. The lightning-quick recap of Prisoner of Azkaban on a video screen is funny, but from where I was sitting, I couldn't read much of what was being projected. Apparently seven books of material is not enough to fill a little over an hour, so the writers add in references to Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia and, bafflingly, a joke about the stage version of War Horse (yes, it was one of the few times I laughed, but I was almost alone in getting the reference).

A central conceit of Potted Potter is how Del has squandered Gary's show budget on substandard sets, cheap props, a shameless assortment of party store hats and wigs, and a diminutive cast of two. This would be funny if the show was not being presented in a Theatre Four-times-too-large for its Off-Broadway roots and at a ticket price too high ($47.50 to $75) to justify the expenditure.

Rather than banging your head on this shallow dive into the depths of Harry Potter, why not pop some popcorn and watch the film series? Or, better yet, dust off the books and enjoy them the way they were intended? After all, J.K. Rowling's masterwork has all the humor, adventure and vivacity that Potted Potter is lacking. Sure, it will take much more of your time than 75 minutes, but, trust me, the time will fly by faster than a seeker grasping for a snitch.