{"id":106936,"date":"2023-12-05T14:09:48","date_gmt":"2023-12-05T22:09:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=106936"},"modified":"2023-12-05T14:11:05","modified_gmt":"2023-12-05T22:11:05","slug":"title-of-show-is-omg-terrific-at-santa-rosas-left-edge-theatre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/title-of-show-is-omg-terrific-at-santa-rosas-left-edge-theatre\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Title of Show&#8217; is OMG! terrific at Santa Rosa&#8217;s Left Edge Theatre"},"content":{"rendered":"<header id=\"masthead\" class=\"\">\n<div class=\"site-branding\"><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div id=\"content\" class=\"site-content\">\n<section id=\"primary\" class=\"content-area category-arts-entertainment tag-hunter-bell tag-jeff-bowen tag-jonathan-blue tag-left-edge-theatre tag-molly-larsen-shine tag-rosie-frater tag-serena-elize-flores tag-title-of-show\"><main id=\"main\" class=\"site-main\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"featured-image-beside\">\n<figure class=\"post-thumbnail\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"attachment-newspack-featured-image size-newspack-featured-image wp-post-image\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/localnewsmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Title3Crop.jpg?fit=1200%2C777&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"777\" data-perfmatters-preload=\"\" data-hero-candidate=\"1\" \/><\/figure>\n<p><em><strong>Excellent in Left Edge Theatre\u2019s amusing <\/strong><\/em><strong>[title of show]<\/strong><em><strong>\u00a0are (from left)Jonathan Blue and Michael Girts. (Courtesy Dana Hunt\/Left Edge Theatre)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div class=\"main-content\">\n<article id=\"post-120511\" class=\"post-120511 post type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-arts-entertainment tag-hunter-bell tag-jeff-bowen tag-jonathan-blue tag-left-edge-theatre tag-molly-larsen-shine tag-rosie-frater tag-serena-elize-flores tag-title-of-show entry\">\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<div id=\"id_98328\" class=\"newspack-popup-container newspack-lightbox newspack-popup hidden newspack-lightbox-placement-center newspack-lightbox-size-medium newspack-newsletter-prompt-overlay \" role=\"button\" data-segments=\"\" data-frequency=\"0,0,1,day\" data-scroll=\"50\">\n<div class=\"newspack-popup-wrapper \" data-popup-status=\"publish\">\n<div class=\"newspack-popup__content-wrapper\">Plays within plays are not common in ancient Greek theater. It took the passing of centuries and William Shakespeare to perfect the concept with the likes of \u201cA Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream\u201d and \u201cHamlet.\u201d Musicals within musicals came next, with Broadway smashes such as \u201cKiss Me Kate,\u201d \u201cCabaret,\u201d \u201cA Chorus Line,\u201d \u201c42nd Street\u201d and \u201cThe Producers.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Then in 2004, two self-described \u201cnobodies from New York\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<p>Their concoction \u2014 titled \u201c[title of show]\u201d and detailing every step of what they did (including the use of insipid dialogue from their everyday-speak) \u2014 is running at the Left Edge Theatre in Santa Rosa. It\u2019s worth the trip there.<\/p>\n<p>Director-choreographer\u00a0Serena Elize Flores has created an almost flawless two-act, two-hour version with four superb actor-singers that guarantees you\u2019ll laugh (or at least chortle) a lot at both the clever wordplay and the physical horseplay and mugging.<\/p>\n<p>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\u2019t help but entertain. Eating a hot dog, for example, becomes Hunter\u2019s elongated gag in which a mouthful of food becomes a mouthful of giggles for the audience.<\/p>\n<p>The guys\u2019 gal-pal muses are deftly conjured by\u00a0Molly 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 \u201ccorporate whore.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-120513\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/localnewsmatters.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Title1.jpg?resize=780%2C439&amp;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"780\" height=\"439\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><strong><em>Playing the foursome working on a new musical in Left Edge Theatre\u2019s <\/em>[title of show]<em> are (from left) Michael Girts, Jonathan Blue, Rosie Frater and Molly Larsen-Shine. (Courtesy Dana Hunt\/Left Edge Theatre)\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Language in the show can be prickly, to say the least, with scads of gay and sexual references \u2014 all\u00a0played for laughs.<\/p>\n<p>Repeated bits evoke wide grins, such as: when Jeff condescendingly corrects Hunter\u2019s dance steps and language (\u201cIt\u2019s redundant, ATM stands for automated teller machine so you\u2019re saying automated teller machine machine\u201d); when one of the women suggests having the two fellas as her \u201cmaids of honor\u201d; when big names are dropped as they mull who\u2019ll 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.<\/p>\n<p>The showstopping song is \u201cDie, Vampire, Die!\u201d a spectacular, incisive look by Susan (and the three others) at fighting inner demons and not compromising when it comes to creativity.<\/p>\n<p>But highly likeable, too, are\u00a0\u201cAn Original Musical,\u201d a comic duet featuring Jeff with Hunter wearing a ludicrous costume as a sheet of blank paper on which they write their\u00a0original show for the New York Musical Theatre Festival; \u201cI Am Playing Me,\u201d an ideal showcase for Heidi; as well as \u201cChange It, Don\u2019t Change It\/Awkward Photo Shoot\u201d and \u201cNine People\u2019s Favorite Thing\u201d (\u201cI\u2019d rather be nine people\u2019s favorite thing than 100 people\u2019s ninth favorite thing\u201d), both exuberantly mimed and sung by all four performers.<\/p>\n<p>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.<\/p>\n<p>Nothing else in the show, in which the characters continuously deconstruct reality, disappoints.<\/p>\n<p>Left Edge\u2019s \u201c[title of show]\u201d 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.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Left Edge Theatre\u2019s \u201c[title of show]\u201d continues through Dec. 23 at The California, 528 Seventh St., Santa Rosa. Tickets are $20-$29 at<a href=\"https:\/\/www.caltheatre.com\/event-details\/title-of-show-2023-12-01-19-30\">leftedgetheatre.com<\/a> or (707) 664-7529.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div>\n<p>This story was first published on<span class=\"apple-converted-space\">\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/localnewsmatters.org\/\">LocalNewsMatters.org<\/a>, a nonprofit site supported by Bay City News Foundation <a href=\"http:\/\/www.baycitynews.org\/contact\/\">http:\/\/www.baycitynews.org\/contact\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p><em><b>Woody Weingarten, a longtime member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, can be contacted by email at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/woody-weingarten\/voodee@sbcglobal.net\">voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a>\u00a0or on his websites,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/woodyweingarten.com\/\">https:\/\/woodyweingarten.com<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/vitalitypress.com\/\">https:\/\/vitalitypress.com<\/a>.<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/main><\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Excellent in Left Edge Theatre\u2019s amusing [title of show]\u00a0are (from left)Jonathan Blue and Michael Girts. (Courtesy Dana Hunt\/Left Edge Theatre) Plays within plays are not common in ancient Greek theater&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":4.5,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-106936","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"<div class='yasr-small-block-bold'><span class='yasr-visitor-votes-must-sign-in'>You must sign in to vote<\/span><\/div>"},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106936\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}