Authors: Sally Deering and Larry Bortniker. At: Bailiwick at Mary's Attic, 5400 N. Clark. Tickets: 773-883-1090,
www.bailiwick.org; $15-$20. Runs through: July 18
The good news is that Bailiwick Repertory is back with a new show, and will produce two more for its annual summertime Pride Series ( at the Center on Halsted ) . The bad news is—-well, there isn't any. The new show is silly and inconsistent, but the silliness is intentional in this 80-minute cabaret presentation in the comfy quarters of Mary's Attic. However, the blandishments of Bombs Away! may escape those who aren't Broadway Musical Queens.
The premise is that a Broadway musical historian has collected awful musical numbers that were cut from legendary hit shows; songs by the likes of Irving Berlin, Andrew Lloyd-Webber, Leonard Bernstein and so on. For example, Rodgers and Hammerstein tried out "Krakatoa" before creating "Bali-Hai" for South Pacific. And Bernstein's West Side Story had a song for a gay Shark and a gay Jet. Cole Porter is conspicuously missing, but then he didn't write any bad songs, did he?
Sally Deering's book is nearly invisible, so the task falls to composer and lyricist Larry Bortniker to come up with suitable parodies of the diverse musical styles of great showbiz composers. Many of the 16 numbers are very funny but as musical parody they are decidedly hit-and-miss. Only about half the time does Bortniker successfully capture the musical personality of the composers he's chosen to pillory. This won't necessarily impede your fun, but it's what critics like me are paid to observe.
The title song, for instance, doesn't sound for a second like something from The Sound of Music, as it purports to be, but the second number, "Shake Me Green Shillelagh," does sound like a leprechaun's song from Finian's Rainbow. Bortniker also does well with an Abba parody from Mamma Mia, "See ya' at Ikea" and a take-off on A Chorus Line, "Too Fat to Dance." Less successful musically—although the lyrics are a stitch—are Annie Oakley's sex change song from Annie Get Your Gun and a Fiddler on the Roof tune which sounds like the pop song "Those Were the Days."
Fortunately, Bortniker isn't too proud to use occasional gross-out humor to enliven things such as "The Age of Uranus" from Hair: "My head is in Uranus and there's room for you and me," the company intones. And you're sure to enjoy the long-lost "Licky-Licky" number from South Pacific or "We're French and we're Revolting" from Les Miserables.
As for the cast, well, they are good people doing strange things ( in the best sense ) under the direction of David Zak, with musical staging ( and some clever choreography parodies ) in cramped quarters by Christopher Pazdernik, and spot-on musical direction by Jimmy Morehead. The jolly company is Kate Grassino, Eric Martin, Brian Rabinowitz, Rus Rainear and Anna Stevens.