Weiner's Premiere Play Astounds With Its Ridiculous Humor Out of This GALAXY

I've never really liked musicals. It might be more accurate to say that I resent them. Audiences are expected to like musicals the way children are expected to like puppets.

We know there's something vaguely pathological about their cheerfulness, but our nagging consciences keep telling us that we're supposed to be having fun, or better yet, fun for the entire family.

So I admit that I was pretty disappointed when Javert from "Les Miserables" jumped to his death before he could bump off that irritating fruit, Jean Vajean. And I always wished that the Von Trapp family could have come to a more, say, creative, end. I also have to admit that I really liked "Galaxy."

Written by Ron Weiner and directed by Dan Cooper, "Galaxy" subverts this dilemma by making fun of its own genre. As the program notes, it is the year 2321, and the Earth's atmosphere has been "rendered uninhabitable." The former earthlings are forced to take shelter in an enclosed biosphere called Dome Federation One. Living under the reign of an oppressive dictatorship, they hold out for the elusive hope of a "New Earth."

Weiner's witty script plays out the drama of this totalitarian nightmare state in a cheesy brothel/dance hall. "The Pleasure Quarters" is the home of the "only star in the Galaxy," an annoying James Cagney sound-alike named Vic Voom (Steven Schardt). His nightly dance numbers feature a relentlessly jolly chorus line of five busty women and an idiot-savant break-dancer named Timmy.

Enter The Chairman (Dome Federation One's maliciously inept dictator), played by Michael Wertheim. He dances, he sings, he erupts into fits of maniacal laughter. Of course, he also has a Deep Dark Secret.

He attempts, with hilarious awkwardness, to court Elaine (Leslie Yahia), the dancer with the decidedly anti-romantic epithet of "Carnival Girl." In one scene, The Chairman, having had his lady love drugged and thrown into a box to be transported to his lair, asks sweetly, "Why so frosty?"

Mike Efron plays Tanner, the lovelorn cyborg who knows too much. His scenes with Elaine are particularly funny. Weiner has a real talent for parodying the strained relationship between the sexes.

When Tanner declares his love for Elaine, she protests, "but you're not human." Somewhat taken aback, the cyborg insists, "We can get past that."

Efron's sense of comic timing really helps. Several lines which might have been marginally funny end up hilarious. At one point, Tanner tells Elaine, "I just want to be pals...plus a little extra."

The acting is almost uniformly good. Cooper has assembled a lot of comedic talent. Steven Schardt is perfect as the obnoxious Vic Voom. He manages to keep a cheesy grin on his face for the entire two-hour production. Micheal Wertheim gives a wryly witty performance as The Chairman. Aaron Meyers, who plays Timmy and dances in most of the numbers, is a hilarious physical comedian, contorting his face and body into all kinds of impossible positions.

The musical numbers are somewhat more uneven, but mostly successful. Emily Bowen's costumes, Doctor Who-inspired space suits that bear an eerie resemblence to cruisewear, are an appropriate touch.

At one point, The Chairman has an uncooperative bartender, (Geoff Gladstone) shot.

Gladstone leaps up from the floor to do a limp, hostile jig while the entire cast sings cheerfully, "Isn't it something when the waiter's dead?"

A couple of songs, however, including "Saved by Love," aren't particularly interesting, and could have been cut.

Fortunately, though, none of the songs take themselves too seriously, so even the less impressive numbers are forgivable.

Is there hope for the future? Yes, in the form of two guys in green grippers and fright wigs...I guess you had to be there.