Word: shows
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...plot was nothing unusual for a Pudding show, where original thought usually takes a back seat to tradition and G-strings. Superspy Carson O'Genick (played by Phil Murphy) is sent on an assignment from the British Intelligence with his one-time lover Natalie Dreste (David Merrill) to explain the link between the discovery of large amounts of opium in the Near East and the desire of the Society for the Prevention of Anglo-Saxon Morality (SPAM) to destroy the British Empire...
...British with opium and blow away their entire navy. In the end, thanks to the efforts of O'Genick's fellow travelers, Spasm the Butler (Rich O'Leary) and Ella Mental (Doug Fitch), the scheme is thwarted. (Leavitt and Peirce's sales have dropped sharply since the show opened...
Although the show's plot improves dramatically in the second act from the pun-fest of the first, it is merely a showcase of the characters and an occasion for the show's 15 musical numbers. The author, Nick Vanderbilt, throws in a few good lines between the songs, though...
While Vanderbilt steadied a shaky plot well with puns, it is in the songs that the creative genius of the show lies...
...nailed ("Natalie, I believe I've found myself overqualified for life as we know it."), but the kid knows how to play off the audience like the great comic actors. Hanes is raw material, and when he goes into the Elvis-takeoff tune "Stud" (my favorite song in the show, complete with background choreograpy in the finest Motown tradition), you'll know he doesn't spend his Saturday nights watching "Mannix...