A Standing O for MUSICALS

Founded in 2008 and based in Arnold, Standing O Productions describes itself in its mission statement as “a risk-taking theatre company dedicated to presenting lesser-known masterpieces paired with area premieres to engage the community and inspire discussion.” To open its third season, the company is reviving two of its quirkier hits from 2009: The Musical of Musicals: The Musical, an affectionate parody of musical theatre icons, and 52 Pick-Up, which tells the story of a relationship in 52 randomly ordered scenes.

On Sunday I drove southeast down Ritchie Highway to check out the final performance of Musical of Musicals. (Like many of Standing O’s productions, it ran only for one weekend.) My reward was a cleverly written, enthusiastically performed homage to the shows and show tunes that—I admit this unapologetically—formed the primary soundtrack to my teenage years. The book—by lyricist Joanne Bogart and composer Eric Rockwell, who also collaborated on the score—manages to distill some of the most celebrated Broadway musicals of the past century into a single, generic plotline (scrawled in white letters across the black-curtained set): “I can’t pay the rent,” followed by “You must pay the rent,” followed by “I’ll pay the rent,” followed by “Awww …”

Refreshingly, those are the only references to a certain Puccini-inspired rock opera. Instead, Musical of Musicals uses the “crisis” of a visit from the landlord as an excuse to send up five legendary songwriters and songwriting teams. The first of these “mini” musicals, “Corn,” plops us into Rodgers and Hammerstein country, where sweet, lovely June is given an ultimatum from a menacing cowboy named Jigger: Pay the rent or be my wife. In the second vignette, things become “A Little Complex”: Jeune is an indecisive model, Jigger is an alienated “demon” artist, and the dissonant music is unmistakably Sondheim. The third vignette, “Dear Abby!” spoofs Jerry Herman (Hello, Dolly!); the fourth gives us an Andrew Lloyd Webber-inflected “Aspects of Junita” (featuring Jigger in a half-mask and cape), and the fifth transports Kander and Ebb to a speakeasy in Weimar-era Berlin.

If these references mean nothing to you, then this probably isn’t your kind of show. But if songs titled “I Don’t Love You,” “Hola, Aloha, Hello,” and “I’ve Heard That Song Before” (a surprisingly catchy melody repeated ad nauseam throughout the Webber pastiche) cause you to smile, then you’ll find genuine pleasures in this witty tribute to the Great White Way. Bogart and Rockwell are legitimate songwriters in their own right, and Standing O gave their work a worthy production.

Despite a somewhat plodding start—in several early numbers, Ali Vellon’s choreography consisted primarily of actors pacing vaguely at the foot of the stage—the cast of four eventually found their groove. The change in tone from the earnestness of Rodgers and Hammerstein to the darker, more outrageous Sondheim parodies seemed to energize the performers; subsequently, the staging became crisper and the choices more specific.

The sharpest moments came from Ron Giddings (also Standing O’s artistic director), who sank his teeth into the various incarnations of Jitter with scenery-chewing gusto, and Debbie Barber-Eaton, who played increasingly zany versions of the advice-dispensing older women who populate so many musicals. (Who knew! Think The Sound of Music’s mountain-climbing Abbess; Company’s embittered, alcoholic Joanne; and, of course, Ms. Dolly Levi herself.)

As the archetypal romantic leads who cycle through the vignettes, Sara Cobb and Jason Vellon gave more generic performances (in admittedly blander roles), delivering most of their lines with tongues planted firmly in cheeks. Still, everyone earned his or her share of laughs, and the singing was consistently good.

Musical director Marsha Goldsmith was serviceable on the piano, though I couldn’t help wondering what the show would have sounded like with a fuller orchestra. Ron Giddings (senior, I assume—he is identified in the program as “the Dad”) and Ali Vellon provided no-frills set and lighting designs, respectively.

Despite the show’s charms, were Musical of Musicals still playing, I’m not sure I would have recommended driving 30-plus minutes from Baltimore just to see it. But I will definitely try to make it back to Arnold in the near future for something more substantial—if not the aforementioned 52 Pick-Up, then hopefully May’s production of This Is Our Youth, Kenneth Lonergan’s well-regarded play about drifting adolescents in 1980s Manhattan—to see if the members of Standing O Productions really deliver on their mission to be risk takers.

52 Pick-Up will run from March 26 to March 28. This Is Our Youth will run from May 14 to May 22. Both shows will be performed in the Black Box Theatre at the Chesapeake Academy, located at 1185 Baltimore-Annapolis Boulevard in Arnold. Tickets are $15­ to $18. For more information, call 410-647-8412 or go to www.standingoproductions.org.