Clary’s Critique: The Musical of Musicals: The Musical!

Over the weekend, The Musical of Musicals: The Musical! premiered in the fine arts building. 

The musical was a telling of one plot and turned into five different parodies of iconic musical theater writers. The entire plot was about tenants not being able to pay rent and having to deal with, what I think, is the worst landlord known to man.

This plot is told through the musicals Corn, A Little Complex, Dear Abby, Aspects of Junita and Speakeasy. 

The musical followed characters Abby, June, Bill and the landlord Jitter in their different variations. In each act of the musical, the characters took on slightly different names that were reminiscent of their original. 

If I’m being completely transparent, I knew nothing about any of these plays before walking into this. I was just looking for a nice night out with my friends. 

I really did have a great time watching the actors switch their characters depending on the act they were in. It was fun watching the four characters go through the same issue in different ways. 

I know that sounds like it’d be boring, but truly I enjoyed the repetition because I could focus more on other things. I didn’t have to focus on the story because I knew it was about them not being able to afford rent. 

In Corn they explored what it would be like to not afford rent and have your daughter pawned off to the landlord instead of her true love just to pay rent. This was a cute way to open the musical because it was set in Kansas, reminiscent of home for many in the audience, and followed the love story of June and Bill as they realized they actually did love each other. 

A Little Complex gave the audience a scary act as the landlord killed all three tenants for getting rid of his art, which truly belonged in the trash. I thought this was the best version of Jitter as we saw how terrible he was inside. The entire act was him contemplating how he would kill the tenants and singing to the audience why each choice wouldn’t work.

Right before intermission, Dear Abby was easily the most forgettable of all the acts. In this act, Bill was a middle-aged man-child who survived off an allowance his mom gave him. The whole act was similar to what The Great Gatsby would have been like if he couldn’t pay rent, wasn’t in love with the other main character and didn’t know how to take care of himself. Overall, it was the least enticing act but still gave me a laugh. 

The final two acts were Aspects of Junita and Speakeasy. Aspects of Junita was a slight play on The Phantom of the Opera and featured a small moment from Cats that made the audience laugh. The whole act was about June trying to become the best performer to generate more money to pay rent, of course. June died in this act from a chandelier because her idol, Abby, killed her out of spite and jealousy

Speakeasy was the final act that explored June learning how to sell her body to make money for rent from one of the biggest faces in performing. Everyone on stage dressed and danced suggestively which really set the scene. I liked how they set the stage to be reminiscent of a crowded, smoky bar. 

Overall, I would recommend this musical to everyone who is looking for a good laugh. Especially before finals, this helped lift a lot of stress off my shoulders by taking my mind off the projects and tests.