[ Billy Van Zandt and Chorus]

Merrily We Dance and Sing (or The Naughty Boy)

SYNOPSIS

Slapstick Musical Farce

11 m, 4 f

Merrily We Dance and Sing is a slapstick, madcap musical farce. A small-town community theater performs an original operetta The Naughty Boy, when an escaped serial killer gets loose in the theater – and eventually into the show – forcing the actors to improvise new plot lines, rewrite dialogue, and take the opportunity to invent their own happy endings. Imagine “Gilbert & Sullivan Meet the Marx Brothers.” With book & lyrics by Van Zandt & Milmore and original music by Van Zandt, Milmore & Ed Alton. Includes the songs “I Am First an Englishman,” “Once Upon a Time,” the near-impossible tongue twister show stopper “It’s All in the Chase” and “They Call Me Sweet Carnation (Because I Love to Smell).”

“It’s exceptional! With its wicked puns, naughty misogyny, sexual entendre and general goofiness, it’s like an extended Milton Berle Comedy Hour! Slapstick, missed cues, tear-away clothing, pratfalls. Just about everything except scenery falling down. Stay for the curtain call!” – Two River Times

“Packed with fun! Unparalleled in its absurd hilarity! Uproariously funny! So packed with quips, wisecracks and innuendoes that it may be impossible to get all the jokes in one viewing!” – Asbury Park Press

“A zany musical!  Men dressed as women, women dressed as men, innuendoes and slapstick galore! Let us rejoice! Flashes of ‘Pirates of Penzance,’ Abbott & Costello, sex of various persuasions, chases through the audience and collapsing scenery. First-rate! And so hilarious!” – The Coaster