Playwright: Robert Bouwman and Todd Schaner ( music: Scott Lamberty )
At: The Cornservatory, 4210 N. Lincoln
Phone: ( 312 ) 409-6435; $6-$12
Runs through: June 10
Comedy has but one benchmark: does it make you laugh? Praise or critique elements in a comic play like direction, acting, set design, seating comfort, or bathroom cleanliness all you want ... in the end, nothing really matters unless the comedy makes you laugh. Does The Bad Seed: The Musical ( in its world premiere here ) make you laugh? You're damn tootin'. It doesn't just make you chuckle and smile like most comic theatrical outings do, this one works the kind of funny bone magic that leaves you gasping and maybe peeing your pants. Yes, it's that funny.
For those of you not familiar with the basis material ( originally a book, then a play by William March, and a 1956 movie from Mervyn LeRoy ) , The Bad Seed ostensibly wrestles with the old nature versus nurture conundrum in presenting the sordid story of little Rhoda Penmark, perfect on the outside and rotten to the core within. Rhoda wears frilly dresses, sports perfect blonde braids, and has her curtsies down pat. She likes to play the piano and sit quietly in the arbor, reading. She's also a psychotic killer, perhaps because she inherited some past-its-sell-date DNA from a psycho grandma no one knew about until it was too late. Now, a little girl who kills may not seem like just the ticket to side-splitting comedy, but you have to see the unintentionally camp thriller film to understand how easily adapters Bouwman and Schaner ( who play mother and daughter in the play ... with perfect comic timing and appropriate over-the-top nerve ) translated the vehicle into musical comedy. The duo uses much of the same dialogue from the film, to great comic effect because the film created such a perfect 1950s universe, where the men wore suits and ties and women were in smart little skirts and dresses with a string of pearls ... even when drunk.
Bouwman and Schaner have done some astonishing work here: this is one of the funniest adaptations and drag extravaganzas ( most of the female parts are played by men, the male parts by women ) I've seen outside the work of Charles Busch and Charles Ludlum. The songs here break out of the staid sensibility of the '50s film, and a couple really soar, especially 'Man on Fire,' a snappy little number belted out while an actual man is burning alive. But, even though this is billed as a musical, it's the silly, over-the-top, wink-wink cleverness of the script that really goes for the gut and digs in, like being tickled mercilessly ( Christine Penmark, the perfect mother, once in a while lets out a shocking profanity and demonstrates a fondness for drink and kinky sex; Rhoda's one flaw—aside from being a killer—is a voracious appetite, borne out by portrayer Robert Bouwman's masculine largess, all the more ridiculous in a pink dress, crinoline, and pig tails ) .
The Bad Seed: the Musical is one of those shows that you've got to see to believe. My recommendation: rent or buy the DVD, familiarize yourself with its wonderful camp world, and then head on over to the Cornservatory for a night of laughter that will leave you breathless ... and needing a change of underwear.