Riverside's [title of show] is fabulous

by Meghan D'Souza

[title of show]

Yes, that's really the title of the show currently running at Riverside Theatre.

[audience laughs]
[standing ovation]
[reviewer raves]
[readers attend show]

Okay, okay. I wish it was that easy to capture how great this performance was. To help me along, I stole quotes from audience members on their way out from the show.

"What a great way to start the 30th season (of Riverside Theatre)."
"That was fabulous! Just fabulous!"
"I laughed so much my cheeks hurt."

This show follows a group of friends as they write a musical about their lives. What is fun is that what we are watching, their lives unfolding, is also the musical. This musical is for a festival, but the friends have dreams of making it to Broadway. We witness excitement, a downfall and lifelong goals being fulfilled.

I can't imagine a more perfect cast for this show. Eddie Skaggs, Patrick Dulaney, Jessica Flood and Kristen Behrendt came together to build believable relationships in front of our eyes. Skaggs and Dulaney played two close friends who had a long history together. Flood and Behrendt joined the story as ladies who had not previously known each other, but by the end of the play it was clear that everyone had grown together and built a strong bond in their experience of writing and performing their musical.

The most important part of making this musical work was the comedy. For some, this can be tricky. However, the whole cast, especially Dulaney, had a real talent for comedy. They knew how to use body language, tone of voice, facial expression and, above all else, perfect timing to get the humor across. That is why our cheeks were hurting from laughing so much. It can be so easy to overact or really throw a joke so far in the face of the audience that it simply isn't funny. This cast was so clever with their humor and bounced off of each other so well that the script worked perfectly.

Despite being mainly a comedy, this musical did have its sober parts and I was impressed with the smooth transition the actors made from humor to tension, back to humor, all while staying true to who the characters were. Such a jump to extremes was unexpected, but I liked it. Instead taking a tense scene and making it all about sarcasm to keep the humor going, the anger, anxiety, and stress felt real. The atmosphere was tense. When the characters mended the situation, they made another smooth transition back up to the fun times they were having.

Props should also be given for a clever set design on the open stage. The stage floor was covered with a life-size piece of notebook paper that had doodles pertaining to the musical drawn on it. The piano was on wheels for the characters to move the pianist around when they changed the set around. A dry erase board stood towards the back for the characters to write their notes on, but it was also used as a screen to project images on during one of the songs. The back lighting also used projection, depending on the mood on stage.

This is definitely a musical I am glad I did not miss. It is rare for me to laugh out loud at performances, but this show had what it takes.