Musical comedies are a genre almost as old as the art form itself: the perfect balance of fun scores, breezy storylines, and singular characters make for a perfect night of theatre. Check out these crowd-pleasers that always hit all the right notes!
By Joan Marcus, 2018 Broadway production
Head Over Heels Songs by The Go-Go’s, Based on ‘The Arcadia’ by Sir Philip Sidney, Concept & Original Book by Jeff Whitty, Adapted by James Magruder
Head Over Heels is the bold new musical comedy from the visionaries that rocked Broadway with Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Avenue Q and Spring Awakening. This laugh-out-loud love story is set to the music of the iconic 1980’s all-female rock band the Go-Go’s, including the hit songs, “We Got the Beat,” “Our Lips Are Sealed,” “Vacation,” Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven is a Place on Earth,” and “Mad About You.” A hilarious, exuberant celebration of love, Head Over Heels follows the escapades of a royal family on an outrageous journey to save their beloved kingdom from extinction—only to discover the key to their realm’s survival lies within each of their own hearts. A High School Edition of this show is also available.
Triassic Parq Book, Music & Lyrics by Marshall Pailet, Book & Lyrics by Bryce Norbitz & Steve Wargo
Religion, identity, sex… and raptors! Triassic Parq is a raucous retelling of that famous dinosaur-themed film, this time seen from the dino’s point of view. Chaos is unleashed on their not-so-prehistoric world when one dinosaur in a clan of females spontaneously turns male! Contains adult language and content.
Matthew Murphy, 2021 Off-Broadway production
A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet Book, Music & Lyrics by Ben Fankhauser & Alex Wyse
Two nobodies dream of writing one hit song for everybody, but their day job composing jingles for commercials isn’t the big break they hoped for. That is, until they’re plucked from obscurity by a world-famous pop star named Regina Comet (if destiny had a child, it would be her) and she wants them to create an anthem for her supernova pipes…and her new perfume. They’re so close to the big-time that they can smell it, but following your passion doesn’t always lead where you expect. Making a hit song can be messy.
Matt Polk, 2020 Greer Cabaret Theater production
The Book of Merman Book by Leo Schwartz & DC Cathro, Music & Lyrics by Leo Schwartz
Two Mormon missionaries knock on the door of Ethel Merman and hilarity ensues in this clever new musical comedy. Audiences will fall in love with this heaven-sent journey about two men and “The Merm” with a witty original score and a heartfelt message about being true to yourself. You gotta admit— it’s way more fun than Sunday School!
Christina L. Wilson, 2013 Hamilton Stage for the Performing Arts production
Bubble Boy Book by Cinco Paul & Ken Daurio, Music & Lyrics by Cinco Paul, Based on the film Bubble Boy by Cinco Paul & Ken Daurio
Jimmy Livingston was born without immunities and has spent his entire life confined inside a plastic bubble room. Enter Chloe, the girl next door, who becomes his friend and steals his heart. When she leaves town to get married, Jimmy travels cross-country in a homemade bubble suit in order to stop the wedding and finally tell her how he feels. Along the laugh-filled journey he deals with a crazy cult, a biker gang, a dead cow, and a controlling mother who will stop at nothing to get him back in the bubble.
2017 Off-Broadway production
The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin Book, Music & Lyrics by Kirsten Childs
What’s a Black girl from sunny Southern California to do? White people are blowing up Black girls in Birmingham churches. Black people are shouting “Black is beautiful” while straightening their hair and coveting light skin. Viveca Stanton’s answer: Slap on a bubbly smile and be as white as you can be! In a humorous and pointed coming-of-age story spanning the 60s through the 90s, Viveca blithely sails through the confusing worlds of racism, sexism, and Broadway showbiz until she’s forced to face the devastating effects of self-denial.
Photo by Marc J. Franklin, 2018 Off-Broadway production
Desperate Measures Book & Lyrics by Peter Kellogg, Music by David Friedman, Orchestrations by David Hancock Turner, Vocal Arrangements by David Friedman
When the dangerously handsome Johnny Blood’s life is on the line, he must put his fate into the hands of a colorful cast of characters including a mysterious sheriff, an eccentric priest, a narcissistic governor, a saloon girl gone good, and a nun out of the habit. Together, they face uncharted territory as laws are broken and hearts are won. Before the sun sets, will they be able to rise up and pull off the greatest act yet, or will Johnny be left hanging?
2014 Milwaukee Rep production
The Doyle and Debbie Show By Bruce Arntson
Doyle Mayfield is an old-guard country star in the Porter Wagoner/George Jones mold, who had a handful of regional hits with his duet partner Debbie, back in the ’70s and ’80s. Thirty years, four wives, and three Debbies later, he finds himself back in Nashville at a Lower Broadway honky-tonk for one final attempt to regain his former “glory.” Doyle has just discovered his new (third) Debbie singing at the VFW Hall in his hometown of Mooney’s Gap in East Tennessee, and immediately saw her as his ticket back to the big-time. Debbie, a single mother of three, sees Doyle as her last chance to make it to Nashville and make a record, but she is gradually realizing what a terrible mistake she’s made in hitching her star to this loose cannon.
2013 Metropolis PAC production
Five Course Love Book, Music and Lyrics by Gregg Coffin
Three actors play fifteen different characters in five different restaurants on the hunt for one true love. The evening begins at Dean’s Old-Fashioned All-American Down-Home Bar-B-Que Texas Eats, where a blind date goes charbroiled wrong. Next, at the Trattoria Pericolo, a mob wife has a secret rendezvous behind her husband’s back. At Der Schlupfwinkel Speiseplatz, a waiter, a dominatrix and her kept man discover at the same hilarious moment that they are all dating each other. In Ernesto’s Cantina, a hill bandit and his rival battle for the hand of the beautiful Rosalinda. And at the Star-Lite Diner, a waitress pines for her true love and gets a little help from Cupid in making her dreams come true.
2021 Venice Theatre production
The Great American Trailer Park Musical Music & Lyrics by David Nehls, Book by Betsy Kelso
There’s a new tenant at Armadillo Acres—and she’s wreaking havoc all over Florida’s most exclusive trailer park. When Pippi, the stripper on the run, comes between the Dr. Phil–loving, agoraphobic Jeannie and her tollbooth collector husband—the storms begin to brew.
Lend Me a Tenor Books & Lyrics by Peter Sham, Music by Brad Carroll, Based on the play by Ken Ludwig, Orchestrations by Chris Walker, Original Music Supervisor: Paul Gemignani
A riotous tale of mistaken identities and unexpected romance explodes in this brand-new musical comedy, based on the Tony Award®-nominated play. It’s 1934, and opera virtuoso Tito Merelli is about to revive Pagliacci for the ten-year anniversary of the Cleveland Grand Opera Company. But when Tito becomes unexpectedly incapacitated, a suitable replacement must be found. Max, the opera director’s sheepish assistant, is charged with the daunting task of finding someone cavalier enough to fill in for the star. Thanks to a menacing soprano, a tenor-struck ingénue, a jealous wife, and the Cleveland Police Department, mayhem, lunacy, and sheer panic ensue, but in the end, the show must always go on!
2017 Off-Broadway production
Who’s Your Baghdaddy, Or How I Started the Iraq War Music & Book by Marshall Pailet, Lyrics & Book by A.D. Penedo, Based on a Screenplay by J.T. Allen
The show begins in a church basement, where disgraced spies, along with the unwitting audience, gather for a support group meeting. The action soon shifts to Frankfurt Airport, where a mysterious Iraqi defector claims he built secret Iraqi bio-weapons labs. At CIA headquarters, our other characters are contending with their own ambitions, rash decisions, inflexible bosses, unrequited affections, and unremitting boredom—when a fax arrives from Germany, and with it a golden opportunity. If the defector’s story holds up, it will be the ticket out of the basement and into a corner office. It’s all fun and games until the looming cataclysm changes everything.
