I can’t believe I’ve only caught FB twice in its 27 years Off-Broadway. Trish and I decided to catch the final edition a few weeks ago. I have to admit, I felt somewhat self-conscious laughing at jokes that left the majority of the audience in ignorant silence. But I guess that’s what happens when the audience is packed with foreign tourists and clueless locals who obviously aren’t familiar with Broadway or for the matter, the English language. Why would you see a show that parodies Broadway shows if you haven’t seen any? It sort of defeats the purpose, no? The skits that received the heartiest response were those lampooning older shows and general Broadway personalities/topics - i.e. Disney-fication of Broadway, Patti LuPone and Liza - pretty much expected from a crowd with little knowledge of current Broadway. Though it’s quite a tribute to Strouse, Meehan and Charnin that even after all these years, the Annie parody still gets big laughs.
I started feeling bad for the cast right from the opening number. You could tell by the crickets that the audience just wasn’t getting any of the inside jokes. God bless them for pushing through anyway. You could almost see the thought bubble above the cast's collective heads screaming, “This audience sucks. No one knows what we’re talking about,” as they forced smiles and belted out the opening.
Props to the hard-working ladies in the cast for providing spot on vocal impersonations of Patti, Liza, Chenny and Kelly O’Hara. The men were pretty wonderful as well, but unfortunately, there just aren’t any distinctive male personalities or voices out there worth lampooning. Still, the “Lion King”, “Little Mermaid”, “Patti LuPone” and “Feed the ‘burbs” sections are pretty genius.
Unfortunately, this show for the “theatre-insider” closed last weekend. I’ll look forward to it’s return in a few years when I’m sure there’ll be plenty to make fun off - Spiderman, the Musical, anyone?
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