REVIEW: 'Big Bang' amuses but could be better

By PAM KRAGEN - Staff Writer | Wednesday, May 28, 2008 9:42 AM PDT ∞

The concept, on the page, is hilarious. And the two actors who bring "The Big Bang" to life at North Coast Repertory Theatre can't be faulted for their undying energy, comic timing and singing/acting skills.

Yet the comedy revue ---- about a musical team trying out their thoroughly awful 12-hour, history-of-the-world musical on an audience of potential producers --- could be so much better than it ultimately is. Boyd Graham's lyrics are witty, Rick Simas's direction is clever and brisk, and Peter Herman's intentionally thrown-together costumes are endlessly inventive, but they're all better than the material at hand.

Make no mistake, "The Big Bang" is amusing. And many in the opening-night audience howled at the makeshift costumes, corny jokes and goofy accents. But with more plot and character development and the elimination of some clunker songs, "The Big Bang" could really sing with the best of the new backstage comedies out there.

Andrew Ableson and Omri Schein co-star in "The Big Bang" as, respectively, composer Jed Feuer and bookwriter/lyricist Boyd Graham, (the real names of the semi-autobiographical musical's authors). The concept is that Jed and Boyd have invited an audience of prospective backers to a borrowed Manhattan apartment where they'll present a sampler of songs from their new musical ---- an $18.5 million, 137-song extravaganza requiring 318 Equity actors, 1,400 wigs and 402 prosthetics ---- with whatever props, sets and costumes they can find at hand.

The fun begins at the door, when audience members are handed a "backers audition" sheet with details about the production (including a bonus offer ---- the first 15 people to invest $10,000 get a coupon for free bagels from Leonard's on Long Island) and Schein works the crowd with a cheese platter.

After a brief introduction, Jed (Ableson) and Boyd ( Schein) dig into the song list, starting with the schmaltzy opener "One Big Bang" and an Adam-and-Eve number ("Free Food and Frontal Nudity") right on through the ancient Egyptian age ("Pyramid," sung by two kvetching Jewish slaves), the Roman era ("I Work the Coliseum" sung by a Christian-gobbling lion), the Dark Ages (Attila the Hun as a cheesy lounge lizard), the discovery of the New World (a duet by Christopher Columbus and Queen Isabella), the Napoleonic age ("Today's Just Yesterday's Tomorrow"), the Irish potato famine (sung by starving Irishman Paddy O'Gratin), World War II (Hitler's mistress, Eva Braun, warbles "Loving Him Is Where I Went Wrong") and more.

While some songs are silly takes on real historical events, others are time-bending surreal romps, like "One Helluva Job," a self-congratulatory motherhood duet by the moms of Jesus and Mahatma Gandhi, and "The Dating Scene," a boozy, "Sex and the City"-style duet by real and fictional American Indian women Pocahontas and Minnehaha at the Algonquin Hotel bar. Musical styles include pop, calypso, cabaret, gospel, blues, operetta and torch songs, all ably played by accompanist/musical director Steven Withers, whose synthesizer keyboard creates a veritable orchestra of musical effects.

A wall clock on Marty Burnett's super-well-appointed set (considering the number of costume, prop and set elements invisibly built in) keeps real time, and the show's 80 minutes mostly go quickly. A few overlong scenes drag, though, and some of the numbers fall flat, particularly the bland "Cookin' for Henry," about Henry VIII's appetite, and the Ides of March duet "Wake Up, Caesar!"

Putting on a furiously fast-paced show crammed with dozens of musical numbers must be exhausting, but Ableson and Schein never flag in their efforts to entertain. They're both masters of dialect, physical clowns and strong singers and their professionalism helps guide the show through some of its weakest spots.

While billed as a musical, "The Big Bang" is really just a revue of songs because the script offers no information on the two characters, the one-joke story never builds a dramatic arc and it ends too abruptly. Fewer songs and a little more plot meat would serve this story well.

"The Big Bang"

When: 8 p.m. Thursdays through Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays; plus select Wednesday evenings and Saturday matinees; through June 22

Where: North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987D Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Solana Beach

Tickets: $26-$40

Phone: (858) 481-1055

Web: www.northcoastrep.org

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