f you missed "In My Life," or better yet, if you missed "Carrie," well, you now have a chance to see a new musical that can take its place alongside the pantheon of the best bad musicals ever written: "The Rat King." Its mind boggling badness just really needs to be experienced. Usually one can tell if a musical is intended to be serious or tongue-in-cheek. Part of what was so special about "The Rat King" was that they really never let on with a wink-wink that this was a joke that everyone was in on. Part of me wonders how anyone could think seriously think this show had any merit. And part of me just wants to go see it again so I can revel in its delicious awfulness.
The show is about a man with three arms who somehow becomes the king of the rats, and who then falls in love with the daughter or a mad scientist. There are some scenes where all of the dialogue rhymes for no apparent reason. And there are songs, and oh what songs. The show is labeled a "rock opera" but it is most certainly not an "opera" since it is most certainly not through-composed.
The show starts off a bit slow I'll admit, but maybe around half way in the songs just get so bizarre that I felt like I was in the audience of "Springtime for Hitler." There's one (hilarious) song the daughter sings about her father lying bleeding on the stairs. In another, the father sings about cutting off the rat king's sexual organ (this, while the rat chorus stands in sexually suggestive positions).
Adding to the amusement factor, was the daughter had a really really terrible voice. She was pretty much flat the entire time. I'm not sure if this was on purpose or not (I think her character may have been a bit mentally unstable) and her father wasn't much more talented in the singing department. Strangely enough, the actor playing the Rat King was actually really talented. Go figure.
Oh, and here's an odd bit of a coincidence: After deciding I need to see this show again (to make sure it wasn't a dream), I looked at the schedule I had written out for this last week of the festival... and I had already (mistakenly) written in "The Rat King" for two performance. How oddly convenient.
My other show this evening was "Kiss and Make Up" - a rather mediocre musical with an insanely talented cast. The second act is better than the first, but I just couldn't help but sit there and wonder the whole time how they got that cast together for such limp material.
