PORT TOWNSEND — Think “Titanic.” Or “The Producers” — on the Key City Playhouse stage.
“The Big Bang,” a musical history of the whole world, is about to hit Port Townsend, opening this very night, Friday, for a four-week run courtesy of three busy performers.
David Natale and Jeff Allen Pierce, last seen together in the Key City Shakespeare in the Park production of “Twelfth Night,” are at their comedy game again. This time, they have musical director Linda Dowdell backing them up. She’s behind the baby grand piano playing for all she’s worth while chaos swirls around her.
Natale and Pierce, you see, play Jed and Boyd, desperate wanna-be producers seeking to line up backers for their new musical, “The Big Bang.” It is to be the most expensive production ever, with a cast of 318 with 6,428 costumes, 1,400 wigs and a budget of $83 million.
We meet them inside their borrowed work space: a swank apartment on Park Avenue in Manhattan.
Things get messy quick. “The Big Bang” starts right out with Adam, Eve and the Snake, then leaps forward to Queen Nefertiti and the slaves, Caesar, Attila and Columbus.
We also meet Mrs. Gandhi, Tokyo Rose, Eva Braun and many, many other people from history — in the apartment.
“‘The Big Bang’ is hilarious,” declares Dowdell. Natale and Pierce deliver tour de force performances, she adds, “reminiscent of Danny Kaye, Bing Crosby, the Honeymooners and Laurel and Hardy, not to mention Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz.
“It’s exhilarating to see them jump through all sorts of hoops for 90 minutes, while singing gloriously in multiple dialects
. . . They play all the roles, male and female,” Dowdell says.
“The songs are derivative, which is usually not a compliment. But the familiar styles contribute to the humor.
“Personally, I’m grateful I remain at the piano, rather than changing costumes and chasing props as much as my fellow cast.”
Key City Public Theatre artistic director Denise Winter is at the helm of “Bang,” with a crew including set designer Abbie Greene, costume designer Beverly Michelsen and production apprentices Jessica Reid and Henry Nolan, two recent Port Townsend High School graduates.
Show time at the Key City Playhouse, 419 Washington St., is 8 p.m. each Friday and Saturday, and on Thursdays and Sundays the curtain rises at 7 p.m. Tickets range from $18 to $20, with discounts for students, though this first Sunday and Thursday’s shows are pay-what-you-wish. “AfterWords” discussions follow each Sunday and Thursday performance. And on Sunday, July 7, it’s Bike Night, sponsored by The ReCyclery community bike center of Port Townsend, so those who pedal their bicycles to the show will enjoy valet parking for their two wheels plus $5 off admission or concessions.
For much more “Big Bang” information, see www.KeyCityPublicTheatre.org, or phone 360-385-5278 (KCPT).
“The show is a great tribute to vaudeville and the value of live performance, reminding us how fun it is to laugh along with an audience,” says Dowdell. “ I predict belly laughs.”
