You may have seen some of the musicals referenced in this year’s May Day musical at Bluffton University, whether on stage, film or both.
You may have even seen some of them produced at Bluffton in the 1970s, ‘80s and ‘90s, during what is now a century-old tradition of May Day theatricals on campus.
But you’ve probably never seen any of them quite like they’re found in “The Musical of Musicals: The Musical!” A celebratory parody of musical theatre greats by Eric Rockwell and Joanne Bogart, the show will be staged at 7:30 p.m. April 30-May 2 in Bluffton’s Founders Hall.
Ticket information
Tickets, $15 for reserved seats and $5 for general-admission bleacher seats, are available online at http://tickets.bluffton.edu; for help with tickets, call the box office at 419-358-3239.
In what Bluffton directors Melissa Friesen and Crystal Sellers Battle call a “magical mashup of musical moments,” “The Musical of Musicals” is actually five mini-shows in one. In each vignette—written in the style of, and paying homage to, a different composer or duo—four stock, musical theatre characters act out the same basic plot: the young ingénue, unable to pay the rent, is counseled by a matronly woman and threatened by an evil landlord; will the handsome leading man come to her aid? (Some content may not be suitable for young children.)
Vignettes include “Corn,” in the style of Rodgers and Hammerstein; “A Little Complex,” Stephen Sondheim; “Dear Abby,” Jerry Herman (composer of “Hello, Dolly!” and “Mame”); “Aspects of Junita,” Andrew Lloyd Webber; and “Speakeasy,” Kander and Ebb (composers of “Cabaret” and “Chicago”).
“The Musical of Musicals,” which premiered off-Broadway in 2003, “gives us a chance to showcase a wide variety of musical theatre styles,” says Friesen, a professor and chair of communication and theatre at Bluffton.
“When most people think of musical theatre,” the director notes, “they think of musical comedy,” represented in “The Musical of Musicals” by the satirized work of Rodgers and Hammerstein and Herman.
“What the other composers bring to the genre is a little bit of an edge,” adds Sellers Battle, the musical director and an assistant professor of music. Sondheim, for example, gives an unusually dark take on fairy tales in “Into the Woods”; the vignette in his style melds aspects of that musical—“A Little Complex” is set in an apartment complex called The Woods, for starters—with elements from his “Sweeney Todd” and “Sunday in the Park with George.”
The Bluffton production has an expanded cast, but the primarily student actors still play multiple parts, and the complexities of that situation present challenges for cast members and directors alike. “This is just so many perspectives,” Sellers Battle says, explaining that unlike shows with the same plot line, the necessity of changing “character thought”—and voice—in “The Musical of Musicals” makes it a more difficult production.
Helping the cause, however, are three local residents with extensive musical theatre backgrounds, she points out.
Among the cast:
In the cast are Dan Basinger, a 1996 Bluffton alumnus and vocal music teacher at Arlington Local Schools, and Dan Stanowick, a former university staff member and veteran of many campus and other area shows.
The pianist, meanwhile, is Chad Stearns, a 2000 Bluffton alumnus. Before starting Modo Media, a Lima marketing company, with Cody Ridenour ’08 in 2011, Stearns was a keyboardist and assistant musical director for touring productions of “Oliver!”, "Oklahoma!" and “Hairspray”—which took him to China in 2008—and conductor and musical director for an “Avenue Q” tour.
“It being the 100th anniversary (of May Day shows), it seems appropriate that I’m playing,” says Stearns, who performed in two musicals as a student and received the university’s Outstanding Young Alumnus Award in 2010.
Doing comedy can be tough—especially a parody—but the students have embraced “The Musical of Musicals,” he says. And he got acclimated after admittedly having “to get what I knew out of my head” for a number that sounds a lot like “O What A Beautiful Morning,” the opening song from “Oklahoma!”
The directors wondered initially about doing “The Musical of Musicals” because they were concerned it might be funny only to audience members familiar with the musical theatre references, Sellers Battle says. (She gets in on the act with over-the-top stage directions from a seat next to the piano.)
But there’s enough humor in the show in general to connect with just about everyone, says Friesen, noting that the parody extends to the final number, “Done,” a send-up of “One” from Marvin Hamlisch’s “A Chorus Line.” And even if people haven’t seen the referenced musicals on stage, “they know of them” through movie and TV versions, she says.
“I think people will walk away with moments they’re familiar with,” as well as some piqued interest in the unfamiliar, Sellers Battle adds.
Current and former directors
The current directors will join former directors—including emeriti faculty Gene Caskey and Stephen Jacoby, and Jane Kaufman—from 3-4 p.m. Saturday, May 2, for a symposium in Musselman Library marking a century of May Day theatricals. And on Friday, May 1, following that evening’s performance of “The Musical of Musicals,” Stearns will also serve as pianist for an informal cast party and sing-along with young Bluffton alumni who participated in May Day musicals.
