Playwright: David Cerda and Cheryl Snodgrass; Score: Cerda and Scott Lamberty . At: Hell in a Handbag Productions at Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division Phone: 800-838-3006; $15-$25. Runs through: July 26
Those capsized cruise passengers from The Poseidon Adventure are back! And so are their crazy costumed fans who know every line of dialogue from that 1972 ocean-liner disaster flick!
That's right, Hell in a Handbag Productions has revived ( and revised ) its campy and drag-filled 2002 musical spoof Poseidon! An Upside Down Musical upstairs at the Chopin Theatre. Yes, Ed Jones' hilarious rendition of the Academy Award-winning song "The Morning After" is back, plus a few new bits.
If you missed Poseidon! the first time during its previous runs at the Theatre Building, the former Bailiwick and the New York International Fringe Festival, rush out and laugh along with it now while you still can. The cast is so large that it's unlikely to be remounted again, plus it probably won't be produced on such a grand scale.
It certainly helps to have seen the original film to get all of the in-jokes and to laugh at the unintentionally campy dialogue that inspired so many silly songs. But it isn't necessary, since Poseidon! authors Cheryl Snodgrass, Scott Lamberty and David Cerda ( who also acts in the show ) all do respectable jobs at generally spoofing the disaster flick genre.
What the Poseidon! authors aren't entirely successful with is the show's framing device. Set at a New Year's Eve party, Poseidon starts with a pack of obsessive Poseidon Adventure fans who watch the film as costumed characters and act along ( or interrupt ) from time to time.
Giving a window to fans and their film memories ( many of them based on real stories ) is sometimes touching, particularly the monologue related by Adrienne Smith about a woman who lost her best friend to AIDS. But more often than not, the spotty disruptions take you out of the show's flow and clash in tone.
Much better are the actors playing the film characters. Ed Jones walks away with the biggest laughs in drag as the ditzy singer Nonnie Parry ( particularly when he embraced David Besky as her dead brother, Teddy, in the new song "Did You Like His Music?" ) .
Back also from the original Poseidon! run ( and doing smashing work ) is Steve Kimbrough in Shelley Winters drag and Michael S. Miller in old-age make-up as the stereotypically Jewish couple of the Rosens. Derek Czaplewski was capable in the Gene Hackman role of Rev. Scott, though I would have liked more mock heroics from him.
Also up for a good laugh was Michael Hampton in the Ernest Borgnine role of Lt. Mike Rogo and Trista Smith as his former prostitute wife, Linda.
As musicalized film spoofs go, Poseidon! tries to do too much at once. But when it's focused just on the film, Poseidon! is camp comedy at its best.
