The Way I See It

Then in 2004, two self-described “nobodies from New York” concocted a hilarious autobiographical musical that depicts how two gay buddies wrote a successful four-character play in three weeks (with the aid of two lesbian actress friends) to enter a festival competition.

Their concoction — titled “[title of show]” and detailing every step of what they did (including the use of insipid dialogue from their everyday-speak) — is running at the Left Edge Theatre in Santa Rosa. It’s worth the trip there.

Director-choreographer Serena Elize Flores has created an almost flawless two-act, two-hour version with four superb actor-singers that guarantees you’ll laugh (or at least chortle) a lot at both the clever wordplay and the physical horseplay and mugging.

Jonathan Blue beautifully portrays music-and-lyrics composer Jeff Bowen and Michael Girts does equally well as Hunter Bell, who wrote the book. Both utilize usually broad (and occasionally subtle) expressions that can’t help but entertain. Eating a hot dog, for example, becomes Hunter’s elongated gag in which a mouthful of food becomes a mouthful of giggles for the audience.

The guys’ gal-pal muses are deftly conjured by Molly Larsen-Shine as glorious-voiced Heidi, a wannabe Broadway star relegated to understudy roles, who temps and caters to pay the rent, and Rosie Frater as Susan, who labels her day job as “corporate whore.”

Language in the show can be prickly, to say the least, with scads of gay and sexual references — all played for laughs.

Repeated bits evoke wide grins, such as: when Jeff condescendingly corrects Hunter’s dance steps and language (“It’s redundant, ATM stands for automated teller machine so you’re saying automated teller machine machine”); when one of the women suggests having the two fellas as her “maids of honor”; when big names are dropped as they mull who’ll star in their show (would you believe Paris Hilton?); when cast members come up with monikers for drag queens (Lady Footlocker, as a for-instance); and when Playbills from a gazillion forgotten Broadway flops are projected onto two vertical screens onstage.

The showstopping song is “Die, Vampire, Die!” a spectacular, incisive look by Susan (and the three others) at fighting inner demons and not compromising when it comes to creativity.

But highly likeable, too, are “An Original Musical,” a comic duet featuring Jeff with Hunter wearing a ludicrous costume as a sheet of blank paper on which they write their original show for the New York Musical Theatre Festival; “I Am Playing Me,” an ideal showcase for Heidi; as well as “Change It, Don’t Change It/Awkward Photo Shoot” and “Nine People’s Favorite Thing” (“I’d rather be nine people’s favorite thing than 100 people’s ninth favorite thing”), both exuberantly mimed and sung by all four performers.

There is no slick scenery design. The set consists of black walls, two upholstered, plastic-covered chairs, two bare-boned others, and an old-fashioned dial phone on top of a stool.

Nothing else in the show, in which the characters continuously deconstruct reality, disappoints.

Left Edge’s “[title of show]” deserves bigger audiences. The musical comedy, which took two years to travel from the New York Musical Theatre Festival to off-Broadway (where the real Hunter and Jeff each won an Obie) and then another two for a crack at the Great White Way, is great fun and, in fact, OMG! terrific.

Left Edge Theatre’s “[title of show]” continues through Dec. 23 at The California, 528 Seventh St., Santa Rosa. Tickets are $20-$29 atleftedgetheatre.com or (707) 664-7529.