Buzzworks Theater Company, at Zebra Crossing Theatre
Dear Ms. Andrews: For those of us who grew up as nauseated by The Sound of Music as your leading man Christopher Plummer was (he once called it “The Sound of Mucus,” you’ll remember), Maile Flanagan’s wicked spoof provides welcome relief.
Flanagan’s One-Woman Sound of Music romps through the entire sappy saga of your journey as free-spirited Maria, from cloistered nun to guitar-toting governess to doting stepmother of the eerily wholesome Von Trapp clan. She tells us everything we always thought but didn’t really want to know about the cast of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. If your husband, whoopee cushion director Blake Edwards, had directed the original Sound of Music, it might have looked like this. Captain Von Trapp is a beer-swilling lech, the eldest Von Trapp daughter is a horny tramp who wants to get down “Nazi boy Rolf’s” pants, Kurt Von Trapp is a lisping artiste who wants to be a graphic designer, and the inhabitants of your cloister would probably feel more at home in some steamier setting. “I wonder what the girls are doing back at the abbey?” Maria muses. “It’s probably shower time.”
Brilliant humor? Well, no. Flanagan’s monologue abounds in cheap laughs and easy targets and her technical skills are suspect, though the Robin Williams-esque pace she adopts helps mask the flaws in her delivery. Still, this is one of the funniest late-night shows I’ve seen in some time. When you have a night off from Victor/Victoria, you’re cordially invited to leave Mr. Edwards behind and join me for this performance.