I will admit, "I See London, I See France (the underwear musical)" did not exactly get off to a good start. The opening number, which I assume was supposed to be funny, was met with totally blank stares from me and from what I could tell, most of the audience. I certainly didn't hear any laughter. Luckily, the show made a quick enough recovery with the very amusing "Smart Girls," and not to long after that an underwear model walked on stage... in his underwear, and all fears of a dull evening were happily giggled away. This show definitely falls solidly into the genre of mindlessly entertaining romantic musical comedy fluff. It reminded me a little of "I Love You Because," a show I had a big soft spot for and that played a far too short run off-Broadway couple of years ago. I will say that some of the book scenes did drag on for too long, but just when I was about to start deciding what I was going to buy at Whole Foods later that night, some fun song would come along and perk me right up again. Of course, because I was never bored long enough to make up a proper shopping list, I never did make it to Whole Foods, but I won't complain. I'd much rather watch an entertaining musical than go food shopping.
The musical score is pretty tuneful and fun - I was especially fond of the very amusing "Fluffy Rain" and the feel good title song that you leave the theatre humming (and also sort of makes you want to go straight to a travel agent to book your next vacation). I will say that when I listened to the four songs on the NYMF site this afternoon, I wasn't particularly impressed, but now having seen the show, I'm finding them much more enjoyable. I think I've played "I See London, I See France" at least five times already.
The cast all did a great job - with special notice going to the very talented and likeable Sandy Rustin, who played the lead role of Gina.
I could definitely see someone trying to produce this off-Broadway – probably at the cursed New World Stages. It would undoubtedly flop, as do all off-Broadway musicals nowadways. But think of the stunt casting potential for a commerical run – if porn star Ryan Idol can make his Broadway debut in “The Ritz,” whose to say other porn stars couldn’t be cast in the role of the underwear model? That should help get butts in seats...
Day Two brought “Bernice Bobs Her Mullet,” a musical probably most notable for marking the return to the stage of two very under-appreciated musical theatre actresses: Ann Morrison of the original cast of “Merrily We Roll Along” (Yes, she was just in “LoveMusik,” but I don’t think she actually had more than one or two lines in that – in this she’s a star) and Garrett Long, star of one of my favorite relatively unknown musicals “The Spitfire Grill.” The premise is cute enough - redneck mulleted hick goes to the big city to stay with her rich relatives; much bitchiness ensues - but even at only 90 minutes, the story seemed to be stretched too thin and I found myself losing interest around halfway through. I mean, there's one so much I can take of watching mean rich stuck-up white girls do their thing. I will say that I really enjoyed much of the score - there was some very catchy stuff in there, and though for some reason I left humming something from "Falsettos" (I forget exactly what song...), and I think I'll definitely keep a lookout for composer Joe Major's work in the future (his previous musical was "Poop the musical: The Life and Times of Thomas Crapper," which I seem to recall enjoying the musical clips from when they made the internet rounds a few years ago).
