10A • July 27, 2018 | Cannon Beach Gazette | cannonbeachgazette.com
‘MUSICAL OF MUSICALS’
By Nancy McCarthy
For EO Media Group
E
ven a lover of musicals
may never be able to
see all the musicals ever
staged. But there’s one
musical that may solve
that problem.
“The Musical of Musicals
(The Musical!),” at the Coast-
er Theatre, combines several
composers’ styles into five
satirical musicals centered on
one story: How will the hero-
ine pay her rent, and can the
hero rescue her from the evil
landlord?
The first version, “Corn!”
from Rodgers & Hammer-
stein, is set in Kansas in
August. It is followed by a
Sondheim selection that takes
place in a New York apart-
ment house, where the land-
lord is an artist with a deadly
plan. Next comes a Jerry Her-
man version with a character
reminiscent of both Dolly and
Mame who advises the young
heroine how to be a star and
get someone else to pay the
rent.
A rock musical, ala An-
drew Lloyd Webber, borrows
themes from Puccini, and a
Kander & Ebb version with
hints of “Cabaret” and “Chi-
cago” round out the parody.
Eventually, the heroine
learns how she will pay her
rent — maybe.
The show is directed by
Patrick Lathrop, the Coaster’s
executive director. Katherine
Lacaze, who has performed
in several productions, is as-
sistant director and choreo-
graphed two of the five sce-
narios.
“I was looking for singers
who had the confidence to
Lira and Bronson say they
discover nuances at every re-
hearsal.
“Every bit is nine jokes or
deeper,” Lira said. “We really
had to do our homework.”
GEORGE VETTER PHOTO
From left: Richard Bowman, Cameron Gates-Lira, Darren Hull and Ann Bronson pose for
a photo from a production of “The Musical of Musicals (The Musical!).”
sing,” said Lathrop about the
four-member cast.
“There are singers, and
then there are singers,” he
added. “If you ask somebody,
‘Do you sing?’ and they go,
‘Oh yeah, I sing.’ Then you
ask somebody, ‘Oh yeah, I
sing really well’; there’s the
difference.”
And then there are sing-
ers who can act while they’re
singing — not always an easy
thing to do.
But Darren Hull, Rich-
ard Bowman, Ann Bronson
and Cameron Lira, who have
worked together in many
Coaster productions, had the
confidence and acting skills
Lathrop sought. Their expe-
rience and friendship also are
evident in the way they en-
gage on the stage.
Layers of jokes
Lathrop, who has a degree
in musical theater, said he en-
joys the parodies and jokes in
the show.
Although each version
stands as a “musical” by itself,
there are satirical nods within
that scenario to other musi-
cals written by each composer.
“Corn!,” for instance, includes
hints of “Carousel,” “Oklaho-
ma,” “The Sound of Music,”
“The King and I,” “Cinderel-
la,” “Flower Drum Song” and
“South Pacific.”
“Once we got into it, I real-
ized the music was very com-
plex,” Lathrop said. “Like the
Sondheim — they’ve (lyricist
and composer Joanne Bogart
and Eric Rockwell) taken the
Sondheim, but they’ve paro-
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Bronson, who played Dolly
Gallagher Levi several years
ago in a Coaster production
of “Hello, Dolly!,” is familiar
with a character in the Jerry
Herman scenario. The woman
poses majestically at the top of
a staircase and claims, “I can’t
sing or dance, but I’m the star
of the show.”
“I’m not doing the Irish ac-
cent this time (as she did with
Dolly), but I realized that I’ve
been this character,” Bronson
said. “I’ve seen you before.”
While Bronson’s favorite
scenario is the speakeasy, Lira
enjoys the Sondheim version
“because I get to sing snip-
pets of songs of roles I haven’t
played before,” she said.
Among those songs is one
about birds flying around her
head:
“Why do the birds fly
died him, and in doing that,
they’ve taken what he does,
which is difficult, and made it
even more difficult within the
parody.”
Most of the shows being
parodied Lathrop has either
seen or worked on. An audi-
ence should be able to under-
stand the underlying winks to
other works as well, he added.
“If you’ve seen the movie,
you’re going to get the jokes,”
Lathrop said. “But the silly lit-
tle shows stand on their own.
The characters are strong. The
songs are really delightful little
songs, and if you listen to the
lyrics, they’re very funny.”
He points to a lyric sung
in a speakeasy: “Here at the
speakeasy it’s hard to say.”
Or, “The hills are alive … but
you’re half dead.”
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Around my golden hair?
Are they building nests up
there?”
Lira, who plays the heroine
June, Jeune, Juney-Fae, Juni-
ta and Juny, remembers her
mother doing the “can’t pay
my rent” melodrama by using
a napkin to imitate the roles.
Heroine (napkin, like a
bow, at the side of the head): “I
can’t pay the rent.”
Landlord (napkin, like a
mustache, above the top lip):
“You must pay the rent.”
Hero (napkin, like a bow tie,
at the neck): “I’ll pay the rent.”
Heroine (napkin, like a hair
bow): “My hero.”
Although the music is com-
plex and the choreography
is tricky, the cast members
obviously enjoy performing
together, thanks to the friend-
ships built on and off stage.
“There’s a safety in that; we
have the freedom to explore,
the freedom to make idiots of
ourselves,” Lira said.
“It’s fun to have people
you’ve worked with over the
past 10 years to help you pull
off a joke.”
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