BY ANY NAME "[TITLE OF SHOW]" IS WONDERFUL FUN

By Chuck Graham, TucsonStage.com

Kathleen Dreier photo

With microphones on, (clockwise) Andrew Miller, Robin Bousel, Mara Katrina Capati and Tyler Wright are stuffing the fun into "[title of show]."

The brand new Southern Arizona Performing Arts Company definitely has some hi-octane ju-ju working. For sure.

After a light-hearted, brightly-spirited SAPAC fund raiser performance of “Gutenberg! The Musical!” last month, these light-footed performers have now officially begun their debut season with a heart-felt production of the eccentric (in a good way)and bouncy musical “[title of show].”

The cast and show couldn't be more loveable. If this production was a big, floppy dog it would jump in your lap and start licking your face.

As that curiously typographical title implies, this show is so new it doesn't even have a name yet. But it does have a significant history. Back in 2004 “[title of show]” was entered in the autumn showcase New York Musical Theatre Festival as a one-act musical that follows the gravelly path of two dewy-eyed dreamers who sit down to dream up and write their very first Broadway (hopefully) musical.

“[title of show]” was so well received at the festival, it was picked up in 2006 for an off-Broadway production. That went so well, in 2008 the show got its own opening on Broadway and then received a Tony nomination for Best Book of a Musical.

Well, not only does “[title of show]” have great chops but so does the SAPAC cast of Tyler Wright, Andrew Miller, Mara Katrina Capati and Robin Bousel, with Carson Wright the director/music director and choreographer.

Also taking an essential part is pianist/assistant music director Brice Kimble holding down both playing and speaking roles as Larry the Pianist.

All are excellent. Right away we meet Jeff (Miller) and Hunter (Wright) as devoted theater geeks enamored with their love of Broadway. They don't have a song in their hearts...yet...but they do get Susan (Bousel) and Heidi (Capati) to join in. Quickly this quartet reassures us they have the big show-stopping voices to fill the heart of every song to bursting.

And this is only the first course. Coming up later in this debut season is “Hot Mikado,” where the Gilbert & Sullivan show is performed while setting those songs to the rhythms of swing, blues and gospel, and then-moving to the Demeester Performance Center in Reid Park for a big-as-all-outdoors performance of “1776.”

But I digress.

“[title of show]” has 18 scenes and musical numbers that chronicle the actual, can-you-believe-it journey from daydream to nighttime amid those bright lights on the Great White Way as Broadway's newest baby.

In a script full of inside jokes for dedicated lovers of musical theater we can sit back to enjoy how obstacle after obstacle is met, battled and overcome.

My favorite joke is how Jeff keeps a running list on his phone of good names for drag queens, whenever they pop up in ordinary conversations. In the show, he goes for Farrah Nuff.

But really, you just have to be there.

The show runs through Sept. 22, with performances at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 20-21, plus matinees at 2 p.m. Sept. 21-22, in the Cabaret Space at the downtown Temple of Music and Art, 330 S. Scott Ave. Tickets are $25.

For details and reservations, sapactucson.org, 261-0915.

Performance dates for "Hot Mikado,” the jazzy re-do of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Mikado,” are Jan. 17-26, and for the celebratory musical “1776,” April 24-May 3.