Theatre Review: Geeks! The Musical!

I’ll admit it, I’m a huge musical theatre geek. Ever since my mother took me to see Into the Woods when I was in 5^th grade, I’ve been hooked. Half of my ipod is filled with the sounds of Broadway and my heart skips a beat whenever someone bursts into song on Smash.

When I first heard about Geeks! The Musical!, I couldn’t help but get a little excited. Of course, there’s not much worse than bad musical theatre, so I kept my optimism cautious. Once I found out that my dear friend Liz Heathcoat was choreographing the production, I knew the production was in good hands.

I was able to attend the opening weekend of the three-week run and was very pleasantly surprised. Taking place in a quiet neighborhood in Hollywood, the set was large and professional and the audience was full and happy to be there. You could easily tell which members of the audience were friends, family and casual viewers vs. those of us who are hard-core geeks. Thankfully for this group, the production is geared towards the latter. I started laughing from the very first song, “Comic Con”, where the entire musical takes place. Are there geeky stereotypes in this musical? Yes, but they are written with love and I could easily think of examples from my own circle of friends for each character. The comic book geek, the negative guy who seems to hate everything, yet still comes to conventions, the sweet geeky girl, the has-been 80s sci-fi actor and the overly dramatic artist.

Geeks! The Musical! has some rough edges, but it was created with geeky love by Thomas J. Misuraca and I had a fantastic time. Seldom do I look forward to a second act, but I happily waited through the brief intermission so I could find out what happened to Jordan and Kerry, our charming main characters. There were songs about Doctor Who, “A Girl at Comic Con” and “Women in Sci-Fi” which made my female geeky heart all warm and fuzzy.

With two more weeks left in its run, I highly recommend that you grab a few friends and head down to the Write Act Repertory theatre and prepare to laugh. While non-geeks may enjoy the show, it is clearly written and performed for geeks and will be best enjoyed with friends who can laugh along at the Watchmen, BSG and Dick Grayson references. Have fun geeking out!

Geeks! The Musical! runs March 1-17, 2002 and you can buy tickets at https://www.plays411.net/newsite/show/play_info.asp?show_id=3037 and if you’re available this Thursday night, there are still a few tickets available on Goldstar. http://www.goldstar.com/events/hollywood-ca/geeks-the-musical.