The Big Bang

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

Oh, sure go ahead and confine the history of the universe into a 70-minute, no intermission play. Call it The Big Bang, reduce it from a cast of hundreds to two actors, and ask investors to pledge their undying support as well as their thousands of dollars, expecting it to be the biggest Broadway musical ever.

Chris Boger and Ted Keunz in The Big Bang.

That’s exactly what the Playwright Theatre has done, and let me tell you right here, right now, it is a smashing success.

Written by Boyd Graham with the music by Jed Feuer, the completed production was to cost $83 million with a cast of 318. No wonder they want investors.

Directed by Brian Thompson, Chris Bogert plays Graham and Ted Keunz plays Feuer. At the end of the fast-paced show all three are panting, laughing, but panting. They have reason. Moving through the centuries, using mostly what is already on stage for costumes, and keeping up with Amanda Farnsworth the show’s musical director and piano player calls for the stamina of a marathon runner three times over.

At the top of the play, Boyd appears with a plate of cheese and crackers for the audience. Of course, it is difficult to get investors interested unless they are given something first. Running out, he runs backstage for more, but the doorbell rings. Apologizing, he races to the front of the theatre, to answer the door. Jed waltzes in. Introducing themselves, they make no bones about the need for investors, describing the very lengthy 12-hour extravaganza to be presented in four 3-hour segments. Whew! Fortunately that doesn’t happen. They intend to hit the highlights only.

Enormously funny, clever, witty, with one laugh constantly nipping at the heels of the next, actors Keunz and Bogert work hand and glove together with comedic timing tucked neatly in their belts. Well, that doesn’t always work because they don’t always have belts to tuck the timing into. Wherever they tuck it, they have it. It doesn’t quite come down to complete nudity, but oh, so close.

And yes, it begins at the very very beginning in the dark before the Big Bang. In the darkness, long before the world began, before there were animals, sounds and light, or anything, the stage accommodates them by going dark. In the dark, furniture is moved, and the Big bang happens right there in front of God and everyone. The audience is told that God, being lonely, created a being in his own image. Oh, mercy, I hope that isn’t true. When the lights come up, there behind a chair, stripped to his shorts is Boyd with a very large grin. Of course God sees to it man has company, and up pops Jed with a long string of ivy over his head.

Eve, of course, is tempted by a serpent played deliciously by a sock.

Following the temptation, the point is made “women would always suffer childbirth, and man would always suffer having to hear about it.”

From Adam and Eve, the play tramples through the centuries to Egypt with the building of the pyramids represented by a footstool. With something wrapped around his body, and a lampshade turned upside down on his head, Boyd instantaneously becomes Queen Nefertitti.

Following the Exodus, the set flies to Italy and Jed with a definite Marlon Brando godfather accent becomes Julius Caesar. This takes them to Act I, Scene 7 and the beginning of Christianity with Boyd as Mary the Mother of Jesus in conversation with Jed the mother of Mahatma Gandhi.

A lion preparing for his 2:00 show with a rope for a tail, a something wrapped around his head for a mane, Boyd describes what it is like to eat the Christians.

An elaborate set that moves with precision needs to be described, because set designer Jordy Lawing premeditated a most adequate set probably in a New York brownstone since the window features a magnificent New York skyline punctuated with lights.

With a colander on his head, Jed turns into Attila the Hun as the show moves to the Fifth Century A.D.

Sassy, irreverent, the clever, creative script will undoubtedly offend the pure of heart, but that is certainly no reason to stay away from this show. Highly imaginative the swift humorous scenarios are matched only by the talented Keunz and Bogert. This show is more fun than a bowl of monkeys. A barrel isn’t necessary. Actually neither is a bowl. One monkey is all that’s needed. I know. I had one once.

If anyone is up a creek over what to do about Halloween costumes, The Big Bang is a must see, demonstrating that anything can be instantly turned into a costume. One may not wish to take down the living room drapes, but these two don’t hesitate for a moment, even with an open window looking out into New York.

They needed and looked for the faux Grand Piano that once lived in the Pinnacle Dinner Theatre, but when they couldn’t find it, Thompson took matters into his own hands and had one built. If any theatre ever needs one, call Thompson at the Playwright, he will be more than happy to rent it out. The way Farnsworth handles the keyboard with melodic awesome precision; the faux Grand takes on a definite life of its own.

The war between ignorance and Barbarism prevail as the show slides into the Dark Ages to a remote nunnery that can’t possibly be described, to 1492 Spain in the court of Ferdinand and Queen Isabella (Boyd) meeting with Columbus (Jed). Columbus has a project, thinking the world is round.

These two rambunctious actors probably won’t give Clay Aiken any competition, which undoubtedly is a very good thing, but their talent moves way out beyond their auras engulfing the entire theatre.

No one should miss Act 10 with the two cooks for Henry VIII as they sing “We’re cookin’, cookin’ for Henry” or 1595 with the Manhattan Indians represented by Pocahontas and Minnie Haha meeting in the lobby bar of the Algonquin Hotel, or Act 14, Scene 6 in Napoleon’s France with Boyd as Napoleon and Jed as Josephine.

At this point the two announce there will be a two-hour dinner break, for the complete show, of course.

The show jumps to the Antebellum South with Boyd as Amber and Jed with cotton glued to his eyebrows and chin as Daddy Bear. I bet no one ever thought two opened umbrellas tucked into the waist of something would create the affect of those billowing silk dresses of the upper crust south. Four would complete the underskirts, but two are enough to create the hilarious illusion.

In Ireland during the potato famine, Paddy O’Brien (Boyd) sings to a lone potato, “Can you be my last potato, my last side dish.”

About the time you think they can’t possibly get any funnier, the show moves to the Industrial Revolution and to the mystical Orient with Boyd representing Japan and Jed as China. A slight competition erupts, but China knows she has something Japan doesn’t: Chinese Food delivery! Rushing out, China returns with bags of Chinese Fortune cookies for the audience.

World War II comes into play with Boyd wearing a colander on his head and Jed as Eva Braun in a trenchcoat and straw hair singing, “Loving him is where I went wrong.”

1960 represented by Woodstock, the two announce there will be a three-day concert. Whew! The phone rings, and the audience is handed blank checks for investors to fill out, while the two sing a recap of their show cleaning up the stage simply because it ends up slightly messy.

After all is said and done, it is near impossible to define and describe this hilarious show that takes pot shots with a brilliantly written script, that definitely needs to be preformed by two actors with strong voices and tongues that don’t easily get twisted with rhymic words strung together. Keunz and Bogert have what it takes to set the world in motion from The Big Bang with a Monty Pythonish flair from the silly to the ridiculous, to the down right knee slapping hilarious, tied together with a couple of poignant laughs thrown in for comical pondering.

The Playwright Theatre has been spruced up with a magnificent mural in the Lobby painted by Daniel Lowenstein, and a classy bar nestled inside the theatre.

The Big Bang holds the feel of a long run, although scheduled only to run until October 21 unless a few somebody‘s scream loudly enough. It is a definite must see for a guaranteed 70-minute laughathon.