Word: sellon
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...Andrew Sellon, who wrote the book and lyrics for the show, and Micheal Scubert, who composed the music, are familiar as the composer-writer team of A Little Knife Music, the Pudding show of two years ago. They describe their current opus as a mix "of the Romantic and the fantastic," set in Victorian times, and contend that, though some humor keeps it from breaking entirely out of the Pudding mold, the show has "much more than that going...
...also seems unnecessary--because Sellon has little to apologize for when it comes to the musical part of the show. Sellon is a fine lyricist and many of his songs contain nice twists and subtle turns of phrase. Even better is Frederick O. Freyer's music, which is the finest part of the show Freyer has managed to pull off a 40s sound which is not simply copied. You might hear a little Basic one in a while, and some of the harmonies might remind you a bit of some of the classics from that period--but Freyer uses these...
...entire cast breaks down into girlfriends and boyfriends. The U.S.O. troupe consists of three couples. Alura lives with her nearly-Frankensteinian lover, Max. Even the peripheral characters travel around in twos, and then there are these twins who keep traipsing through for no apparent reason. Obviously, director Andrew Sellon has taken God's directive to Noah to heart. Then again, God never ordered Noah to write and direct (and write lyrics, and design the lights, and design the makeup) for an original musical. God wouldn't have done that to Job. Sellon has taken all that upon himself, and seems...
...plot is arguably silly, though that is not always a bad thing in a musical. What is bad, however, is the fact that the show was clearly finished in haste. Sellon, who wrote last year's Pudding show A Little Knife Music, started A.W.O.L. as a Pudding show and once rejected, put it into independent production. Pudding shows are a genre unto themselves and defy analysis--but A.W.O.L. is a strange hybrid. It relies heavily on puns and innuendo for its humor, and yet it's not nearly as raunchy and satisfying as the annual transvestite theatrical. At the same...
...Alura has a fine voice and carries herself with a swanky, haughty boredom. Together with Lars-Gunnar Wigemark as her lover Max, the two make a fine pair of oblivious, infighting villians. The U.S. Army fares a bit poorer, though, again due to the failings of the book. Sellon has deliberately written the show without any main characters, and thus the three U.S.O. couples are not developed as separate entities to a sufficient degree. Howard Cohen as Hiram Parts stands out from the group, but in all, the characters tend to get lost in the shuffle. Why Sellon then insists...