Life is a cabaret
In new comedy revue, Music Box Theater reinterprets Lady Gaga and "stalks" PaulaAbdul
Music Box Theater members, from left: Luke Wrobel, Colton Berry, Cay Taylor,Brad Scarborough and Rebekah DahlPhoto by Jesse Talamantes/Visual Services of Texas
Music Box Theater's Rebekah Dahl, left, and Cay TaylorPhoto by Jesse Talamantes/Visual Services of Texas
Music Box Theater in performance, from left, Rebekah Dahl, Luke Wrobel, BradScarborough and Cay TaylorPhoto by Jesse Talamantes/Visual Services of Texas
Clockwise, from top, Luke Wrobel, Brad Scarborough, Colton Berry and RebekahDahlPhoto by Jesse Talamantes/Visual Services of Texas
Friday the 13th turned out to be a lucky opening night for Music Box Theater, Houston’s newest theater. Owners and newlyweds Brad Scarborough and Rebekah Dahl have made the old Radio Music Theatre space their own while still keeping some of the comic spirit of the RMT shows.
Scarborough and Dahl picked friends and fellow veteran Masquerade Theatre actors Luke Wrobel, Cay Taylor and Colton Berry to join the MBT company. For this first show, Opening the Box, they filled the stage with music, bantering, pop culture spoofing, music, impressions, a few Houston jokes, and more music. The musical comedy revue plays Fridays-Sundays through early August.
I never realized the Bayou City lacked a permanent cabaret-style theater until it appeared. So here you go, Houston.
The impressions are fun. Wrobel does a mean Bono and Taylor does an even meaner (in a nice way) Martha Stewart. But on opening night, the company tended to get more laughs when they played “exaggerated versions” of themselves. In an interview with CultureMap Dahl said the company would be playing characters based on their own personalities. They appeared to be having the most fun making fun of themselves.
In the first act, a short scene where Dahl played a freaked-out “Rebekah Dahl” and Taylor played a vegan-calm “Cay Taylor” proved the two have the comic timing of classic female comedy duos as they debated performing in this new/old space at Colquitt vs. the larger space at the Hobby Center in their Masquerade days.
Meanwhile, Berry got great milage (Nissan Leaf kind of milage) out of spoofing his American Idol past. (He was a semi-finalist on the hit show.) The running gag culminated in the funniest bit of the first act, his performance of The Turtles' “Happy Together,” which is apparently the song that plays inside “Colton Berry’s” head when he’s stalking Paula Abdul. Later in the show with help from the audience, he got in some sharp digs at Randy and Simon, as well.
Scarborough contemplated how sturdy or flimsy the theatrical fourth wall might be in such an intimate setting, going so far as to poke at it with a golf club. As “show director, Luke Wrobel," Wrobel spent sections of the show trying to calm down the other exaggerated versions, for some reason using impressions of Frank Sinatra and Bono to do it. My one quibble with “Luke” is that he needs to establish his directorship authority earlier in the show.
And my one complaint was that those exaggerated selves and their exaggerated issues seemed to be dropped by the end of the show. I thought they were funny enough to extend a little more consistently until the close. They also helped to create smooth segues into the music.
A good example of one such funny transition from comedy bit to music came later in the show as “Rebekah Dahl” and “Colton Berry” had a fight over who gets to dress up as Lady Gaga. “Cay Taylor” registered her vegan protest against meat dresses, and then Dahl and Taylor settled in for a sultry “Poker Face” duet.
Gaga herself did an acoustic version of the song and Glee did a wildly inappropriate — as is the Glee way — mother/daughter duet version, but Dahl put what, to my ears, sounded like a bit of country twang into it, a new spin that refreshes the often-covered song.
The best balance of music and comedy came during the second act with a routine of famous Broadway characters singing equally famous classic rock tunes. Ever wonder what the King of Siam’s rendition of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” might sound like? Or how well Little Orphan Annie might belt Heart’s “Crazy on You?" Well, the Music Box crew have and want to share. The Steve Miller Band’s “Joker” is particularly poignant when emoted bravely by The Phantom of the Opera.
The company took a rather convoluted route, involving Time Life Music Collections, to get to the bit, but it’s worth the set up and was actually too short. I’m not sure they could stretch the routine into a whole show, but I was left wanting more.
Two of my favorite, not particularly funny but beautiful rendered, song covers were Taylor’s gorgeous take on the Beatles’ “Blackbird,” with the rest of the MBT crew providing a cappella backup, and Wrobel’s final solo, “Over the Rainbow.”
In their earlier interview, Dahl and Scarborough told us they would be paying attention to audiences' reactions to help them edit and make changes to the show. So it might be interesting to check back with the company and see if the show evolves as they get more comfortable with their new space and audiences.
An evening of cabaret, Houston style, might just be the thing to stay cool on a hot summer night. No meat dress allowed, but I’m betting if you’re Paula Abdul, you’ll get in free.
