When I was younger and read Mad Magazine on a consistent basis, one of the things I loved were their musical movie parodies. We’d get “The Force and I” (based on “Star Wars”) and a “Jaws” based musical (which I believe was called “The Shark and I”). These parodies took scenes from famous movie and took famous songs and rewrote the lyrics to fit the film. So, for example, we’d have C-3PO explaining to the tune of “The Sound of Music’s “Do-Re-Mi” all the sounds a droid makes. There are plenty of other fuzzy examples rummaging around my head.
One of those fuzzy memories is that the magazine had published a musical parody of “The Poseidon Adventure” (in fact, the September 1973 issue featuring the regular parody called “The Poopsidedown Adventure” was their highest selling issue up to that time). Now, here is a movie that was ripe for musical parody in the pages of Mad Magazine. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect someone to actually attempt a live stage musical version.
The NYC Fringe Festival is a month-long parade of about 200 shows presented in various venues all over the city. These are shows that range all over the place, but the one thing they have in common is that they will most likely never be seen by such a wide audience. Occasionally, something comes out of this Festival and “makes it” (like “Urinetown”). “Poseidon: An Upside Down Musical” easily has the potential to make it as an Off-Broadway show (or even a Broadway show). But it needs some work before it gets there.
For those unfamiliar with the film, the plot concerns a luxury ship that is hit by a tidal wave and capsized on New Year’s Eve. A group of survivors slowly makes their way up towards the hull for possible rescue through many dangerous obstacles. The group includes a charismatic, if unorthodox, preacher Reverend Scott (Gene Hackman), police lieutenant Mike Rogo (Ernest Borgnine), his ex-hooker wife Linda Rogo (Stella Stevens), old married yenta Belle Rosen (Shelley Winters), her husband Manny Rosen (Jack Albertson), bachelor haberdasher James Martin (Red Buttons), band singer Nonnie Parry (Carol Lynley), Susan Shelby (Pamela Sue Martin), her bratty brother Robin Shelby (Eric Shea) and ship steward Acres (Roddy McDowall). As they slowly make there way, they argue over the right thing to do and try and convince others to join them. Most of the tension comes from Scott and Rogo arguing over who is right. Unfortunately, not all of them survive.
The musical adds a twist to break us into this story. The scene is set at a New Year’s Eve party being attended by fans of the film. They have all come as their favorite characters (including oddball background characters such as the Purser and Indian Lady). As they watch the movie on DVD, we see the musical unfold. Occasionally they stop to explain what it is about the movie that enthralls them.
The musical version of the film starts with Robin Shelby (Joshua Campbell…who is much older than 13) and the cast singing “Poseidon” in which we learn about the ship (it hold fifteen hundred passengers and a crew of five oh one) and the various characters (for example, he sings that “Mike and Linda Rogo, they really like to yell, he tells her not to worry and she tells him go to hell, my sister thinks they’re crazy, but they know what they’ve got, and you can bet when they make up the sex is really hot”) except for Reverend Scott (a Jennifer Connelly, not to be confused with THE Jennifer Connelly). We meet him in the next scene where he’s preaching how the lord is really only willing to look after triers (which prompts a discussion of the fact that this isn’t a word).
At the New Year’s Eve party on the ship, Belle Rosen (Steve Kimbrough) tries to badger James Martin (Joe Waterman) about the fact that he’s not married. He explains that “deep down I’m a normal a regular guy, I tell folks I’m happy it’s kind of a lie, I’d like to meet a woman but I’m kind of shy, I get by with Playboy and lots of KY” in “Bachelor Haberdasher” (where he’s backed up by the rest of the cast in this very bouncy number).
After the ship capsizes, the entire group (both survivors and the dead) sing of today being just an “Ordinary Day” until their world was turned upside down. Reverend Scott quickly realizes they need to climb up in order to live and they pull the Christmas Tree back up to climb to a balcony. As he starts sending people up, he has to make the women wearing long dresses take them off so it’s easier for them to climb. When he gets to Linda Rogo (Molly Faithe), she explains that the only thing she’s wearing is “Just Panties (What Else Do I Need?)”.
Once the small group is on the next level, some arguments break out and Reverend Scott explains “The Only Way Is Up” (“the floor is on the ceiling, the ceiling’s on the floor, I don’t know how it happened, I don’t know what’s in store, the only thing I do know we haven’t got a prayer, if we don’t try we all may die our only hope’s up there”). As they’re climbing through an air duct, Scott and Mike Rogo start to argue again as the rest of the group comment on their predicament in “Airpockets?!” Once through the duct the group needs to cross over a pool of water on a tightrope and they lose Acres (Brannen Daugherty) to a giant man-eating lobster.
Once on the next level, they reach Broadway, a corridor that runs the length of the ship (although they say the neon lights are bright on Broadway). It is here they run into Doctor Caravello (Talon Beeson) and his nurse (Brigette Ditmars) leading a group of survivors in the wrong direction. The Doctor tells the Reverend exactly how he feels in “Shut Up!” (“Shut up! Shut Up! Mind your business, zip your lip, please Reverend, spare us all your power trip, Shut Up! Shut Up! You’re an asshole and we wish you’d go away.”)
As the Reverend goes off alone to find the Engine Room, Susan Shelby (Cody Cosmic), Manny Rosen (Michael Miller) and Robin Shelby all sing “But I Love Him” and express their loves for the special people in their lives (for Susan it’s her unrequited love of Reverend Scott, for Manny it’s Belle and for Robin it’s Charlie the Third Engineer). Scott returns and takes them to the engine room, but part of the path is now underwater. Belle steps up to do her share of the job since she used to be a champion swimmer with “(In the Water) I’m A Very Skinny Lady”. Scott tells her that it’s not necessary and he swims through but gets stuck. Belle rescues him, but dies afterwards. Scott then leads the survivors up a catwalk as Linda Rogo sings “Bad Girls Need Love Too”. She’s interrupted by an explosion and dies. Reverend Scott then sacrifices himself so the others can open the hatchway to the hull. Robin is killed by the falling panel cut open by their rescuers.
The entire cast then sings “Keep on Climbing”, an inspirational message for any musical to give, no matter how silly it may be.
The show’s biggest strengths are its source material, the respect it has for it, the songs and the very energetic cast. The show does make fun of some aspects of the movie (like Nonnie’s spaciness) and adds some subtext that isn’t there (Robin’s homosexuality and a lot of homoeroticism) but makes sense if you read way too much into things. The songs are all catchy and very hummable and they all seem to come from dialogue in the film (or at least dialogue and situations suggested by the film). The cast is great and doing the gender switching for Reverend Scott, Belle Rosen and Nonnie Parry all just add to the level of comedy. Ron Kelly’s Mike Rogo is an almost dead on re-enactment of Ernest Borgnine’s performance (right down to the hunched over ape-lie crying and wailing when Linda dies…which is referred to as his “Oscar moment” here). Connelly’s Reverend Scott is more of a mix of Gene Hackman and William Shatner than anything else, but it works well. Ed Jones’ Nonnie is a work of art and needs to be seen to be believed (when Susan breaks into hysterics, Nonnie is the only one who can understand her as she also “speaks hysteric”…and when Martin tells her that she just needs to hold her breath when they’re “swimming” they’re well out of the water for about five minutes before she is told she can breathe again).
There are a few problems with the show. The framing device either needs to be re-enforced and used more or it needs to be eliminated. There are really only about four or five stories told by the various partygoers. Only two of those are memorable. Of the memorable ones, one is funny (one women tells how she gave Red Buttons a blow job) and the other poignant, but perhaps out of place (a dying friend used the movie to help get through the illness kind of puts a damper of what is essentially a very funny show).
I’m not going to comment on the staging. From press photos it looks like the show had a set in
I could easily see this becoming an Off-Broadway hit with a little work and a modest budget…or even a Broadway cult item with an even bigger budget (like massive sets that flip over). But as it currently stands this is a fun and interesting curio that needs a rewrite or two of its book (and maybe some additional songs).
Anyone interested should note that the production company does have a CD available on their website (www.handbagproductions.org) of the entire score (it even includes a bonus track of a Belle Rosen solo called “It Comes From Caring” which was cut from the show – it would have been the second or third number based on the line in the movie). If you’re a fan of fun musical theater and can’t see a staged version of this, the $15 spent on the CD is well worth it.
Anyway…I’ll be leaving on August 27 for
Until then.
Be seeing you.
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