[title of show] – Above the Stag

[title of show] continues at Above the Stag, London until 10 March 2019.

Star rating: four stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ✩

In 2004, budding musical theatre writers Jeff Bowen and Hunter Bell decided to enter the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Starting from scratch with just three weeks until the deadline, they chose an unusual subject for their musical – the task of writing it.

What followed became possibly the most ‘meta’ work in theatre. [title of show] – named after the space on the form where Bowen and Bell needed to name their production – saw the composers play themselves as they discussed the best way to write a musical about writing a musical.

That such a quirky idea won a production slot in the original festival shouldn’t have come as too much of a surprise: after all, there’s nothing writers love more than writing about the pains of being a writer, and nothing musical theatre nerds love more than watching the sausage get made.

But that alone wouldn’t have persuaded producers to give it an extended Off-Broadway run, and even to transfer to Broadway. That the show enjoyed such longevity is down to its healthy dose of self-deprecating humour and an acute observation of the biggest antagonist of the process – one’s own inner demons.

While Bowen and Bell continued to play versions of themselves as the show moved first to Off-Broadway and then Broadway itself – the play’s material expanding to document the process itself – its transfer to other locations means, of course, that the characters at the heart of the show must by necessity be played by other actors.

For Above the Stag’s production, Jordan Fox and Michael Vinsen make for an immensely likeable Jeff and Hunter. As the duo struggle to construct their show in time for the festival deadline, they are joined by Natalie Williams and Kirby Hughes as the pair’s friends Susan and Heidi (played in the original by Susan Blackwell and Heidi Blickenstaff).

The dynamic between the four works well, with Williams’ more cynical Susan contrasting nicely with Hughes as the perky actress with “Broadway experience” (even if that experience is as “cover ensemble”).

As the quartet progress to the point to where Jeff and Hunter are ready to send off their script, the musical starts to look into personal psyches rather than just being a series of comedy sketches. ‘Die, Vampire, Die!’ reveals the nagging voices lying under the surface of many a performer, vocalising one’s inner insecurities.

And while Act I goes heavy on the comedy and the musical numbers, it is Act II where the show’s real meat resides. It is also where Bell’s book folds in all of the criticisms that have been, or could be, levelled at the show – that it’s too self-referential, that it’s unlikely to be appreciated outside a small niche audience, and that it needs to be more than series of comedy sketches and silly songs.

Documenting the show’s progression from festival oddity to Off-Broadway, and even Broadway, success, the songs drop away and the show begins to throw more emotional punches.

The prospect of gaining a big Broadway name, thus helping to ensure the show’s success at the expense of having to fire a friend, causes rifts among the actors. A disastrously ill-tempered photoshoot is where tensions come to a head, highlighting William Spencer’s choreography which is strong throughout.

But other than that, Act II is light on musical composition. It is as if the troubles the writers were documenting did in fact get in the way of them writing any better numbers (although their YouTube series, The [title of show] Show, shows they were not lacking in imagination during that time).

Thankfully, all is redeemed musically by the end, as the quartet sing about how they’d rather be ‘Nine People’s Favourite Thing’ than 100 people’s ninth favourite thing. That’s an anthem to live by, and one suspects that this [title of show] revival will be able to find rather more than nine.

Scott Matthewman