Original Off-Broadway Cast (The York Theatre): Musical of Musicals, The Musical!, CD

A Musical of Musicals (the Musical!) is a musical about ¦ musicals. In this hilarious satire of Musical Theatre, one story becomes five delightful musicals, each written in the distinctive style of a different master of the form. June, an ingenious who cant pay the rent, is threatened by her evil landlord. Will the handsome leading man come to her rescue? In an evening of variations on a theme, this basic plot is musicalized the way Rodgers and Hammerstein might have envisioned it, taking place in Kansas in August, complete with a Dream Ballet. The story is then done in the style of Stephen Sondheim, featuring the landlord as a tortured, artistic genius who slashes the throats of his tenants in revenge because they dont appreciate his Art. When presented in the style of Jerry Herman, the story becomes a splashy star vehicle, while the Andrew Lloyd Webber version is a rock musical, with borrowed themes from Puccini. The story is re-told one last time in the style of Kander and Ebb, set in a Cabaret in Chicago.