BWW Reviews: NYMF Musical CLAUDIO QUEST Spoofs the Mario Brothers

Having never played a Nintendo game and possessing only a passing knowledge of the existence of Super Mario Brothers, I'm certain there are plenty of jokes and references in Drew Fornarola and Marshall Pailet's musical comedy, Claudio Quest, that whisked right by me.

As is usually the case with such satirical ventures, promotional materials for the show avoid a direct mention of the subject of their spoofing, but judging from the raucous response by Sunday night's audience, I'd say their darts hit the bullseye frequently.

But even to those of us uneducated in the ways of video games, the fellows have concocted an enjoyable bit of fluff, especially with director John Tartaglia's slick and silly New York Musical Theatre Festival production.

The clever setup is that the glossily heroic title character (flashy CJ Eldred) spends every day in the Eggplant Kingdom rerunning the cycle of trying to rescue Princess Poinsettia (Lesley McKinnell) every time she's kidnapped by the fire-breathing platypus, Bruiser (Andre Ward).

McKinnell is a comic gem as the self-centered royal whose focus in life is being pretty and Ward delivers a knockout performance of a double-entendre number where he tries seducing her with his sincerity.

When Claudio's out of commission, it's up to his brother, the earnest but inexperienced Luís (Ethan Slater) to save the day, reluctantly partnered with Poinsettia's sister, Princess Fish (Lindsey Brett Carothers), who longs for a life of butt-kicking the bad guys.

The thin plot seems a bit stretched in the musical's current two-act state, but the brash and funny company, featuring an ensemble of puppeteers who double as eggplant people, and the determination of the creators to keep supplying quirky surprises makes the evening go by painlessly.

Designers Timothy R. Mackabee (set), Leon Dobkowski (costumes), Jennifer Schriever (lights) and Michael Schupbach and The Puppet Kitchen (puppets) create colorful visuals that suggest pixilation.

The score is a pleasant collection of 80s-style pop tunes with Doug Katsaros' orchestrations suggesting a video game sound. Shannon Lewis' fun choreography is gleefully repetitive and imitates the limited physicality of pixilated characters.

Those who know and love video games will undoubted get more out of Claudio Quest, but as bubblegum theatre goes, this one keeps its tasty flavor far longer than you might expect.

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