STAGE WEST: "{title of show}" at New Village Arts Theatre

Tommy Tran (left) and Caleb Wohlgemuth in "{title of show}."          Photo courtesy of New Village Arts

            “{title of show},” a musical about two guys making a musical, is likable. Its characters, Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen, who actually did this 20 years ago, are likable. The actors playing Hunter and Jeff at New Village Arts, Caleb Wohlgemuth and Tommy Tran, are likable. So, by the way, are the other two members of the cast – Kylie Young and Becca Myers, who play Hunter and Jeff’s actress friends and collaborators Heidi and Susan.
            Have I made myself clear enough? Everything’s likable about NVA’s production of “{title of show}” including its 90-minute running time. (OK, there was one glitch on the night I caught a performance – Wohlgemuth’s mic went out about two-thirds of the way through and was never corrected.)
            Now it helps to have some knowledge of theater history and how theater works in your back pocket. There’s a lot of insider stuff, a lot of theater references in “{title of show}.” More than a few of Hunter or Jeff’s wisecrack observations as they conceive their unconventional stage musical rely on such familiarity. Believe it or not, there’s also a Shields and Yarnell joke in the play, one that will be lost on anyone under 60. (Google ‘em!) But then I imagine that when the real Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen were writing this show they name-dropped Shields and Yarnell in a silly or fuzzy moment and thought “Wouldn’t it be hysterical if we put THEM into the script?”
            Theirs really is an astonishing story. Two struggling theater artists with outsized dreams, they decided to write a stage musical for the 2004 New York Musical Theatre Festival – and to do so in only three weeks. Enlisting pals Heidi Blickenstaff (look up her actual theater credits, which include gigs at both the Old Globe and La Jolla Playhouse) and Susan Blackwell, Hunter and Jeff began frantically and daily workshopping and cobbling together bits and songs, songs and bits. They were rewarded first with a spot in the festival and, wonder of wonders, an Off Broadway run at the Vineyard Theatre on East 15th Street.
            All of this is re-created in “{title of show}” complete with 18 musical numbers beginning with (aptly) “Untitled Opening Number.” The music and lyrics written by Bowen are bright and very clever, which surprised me more than anything else in this show. I can see why not only a festival committee but an Off Broadway theater could be charmed by them. Most of the songs are expository, moving the story along, like “Two Nobodies in New York,” “Filling Out The Form” and, when a real live Broadway engagement appears possible for our creators the self-examining, self-doubting “Change It, Don’t Change It.”
            The rousing and sly “Die Vampire, Die!” led by Susan is the highlight of the score, which for the most part, and thankfully at that, eschews solemn ballads of the sort that Broadway eats up.
            Desiree Clarke Miller, who’s artistic director at Moxie Theatre south in Rolando, recognized that the pace of “{title of show}” needed to be crisp and brisk, reflecting the what-the-hell youth and optimism of all four of the Broadway-dreaming characters. If at junctures the storytelling comes off like a series of sketches run together that only contributes to the freewheeling nature of Bowen and Bell’s quest, one that ultimately was rewarded with a Broadway run at the Lyceum. This is not dramatized in “{title of show},” which has an open-ended finale, but Bowen and Bell’s success is generally well known.
            Much fun is usually had when this musical is promoted with its unusual name. Bowen and Bell called it “{title of show}” practically as an anarchic gesture. Good on them.
            Neither Wohlgemuth, only 19, nor Tran, 24, has a ton of major theater experience, but they’re both confident and comfortable onstage, and the friendship they’re portraying is easy to buy. Young, a standout in Moxie Theatre’s “Cry It Out” two years ago, is the top singer in the cast while Myers, who was directed by Clarke Miller in Moxie’s “Our Dear Dead Drug Lord” last year, enjoys and makes the most of the broadest comedic role in “{title of show}.” Even so, the best sight gag in this production finds Wohlgemuth, wearing a costume of strips of white paper, clowning and representing the blank page that is the enemy of every enterprising (and frustrated) writer.
            Bowen and Bell got it done, however, which should be inspirational to anyone out there who has an idea, runs with it and against all urges to quit perseveres. Whether or not they know who Shields and Yarnell were.
            “{title of show}” runs through Sept. 21 at New Village Arts Theatre in Carlsbad.