[title of show]

Performer: Original Cast Recording
Engineer: Jan Folkson; Joel Moss
Producer: Joel Moss; Kurt Deutsch
Distributor: BMG (distributor)

Notes: Lyricists: Jeff Bowen ; Susan Blackwell. Personnel: Hunter Bell, Jeff Bowen , Heidi Blickenstaff, Susan Blackwell (vocals). Audio Mixer: Joel Moss . Liner Note Authors: Michael Berresse; Terrence McNally. Recording information: Right Track Studio A, New York, NY; Times Square Recording Company. Editor: Joel Moss . Photographers: Terri-Lynn Pellegri; Carol Rosegg. As their submission to the 2004 New York Musical Theatre Festival, songwriter Jeff Bowen and librettist Hunter Bell decided to, as Bowen puts it in the song "An Original Musical," "write a musical about two guys writing a musical about two guys writing a musical." Naturally, when it came to "Filling Out the Form" (another song), in the bracketed space marked "[title of show]," they titled this show [title of show]. The result displays the writer/performers' affection for and understanding of the form of the musical, as well as their ambitions and uncertainties, all of this expressed in contemporary American slang. (The album contains enough cursing to satisfy a rap star, but does not carry a parental advisory sticker.) There is one song in which the two female performers, Susan Blackwell and Heidi Blickenstaff, ponder about each other, "What Kind of Girl Is She," a question that seems to be answered by their follow-up duet, "Secondary Characters." The four singers work up their greatest enthusiasm in "Die Vampire, Die!," a song about the various forms of discouragement facing the creative artist, including actual people and also the voices inside the artist's own head. ~ William Ruhlmann As their submission to the 2004 New York Musical Theatre Festival, songwriter Jeff Bowen and librettist Hunter Bell decided to, as Bowen puts it in the song "An Original Musical," "write a musical about two guys writing a musical about two guys writing a musical." Naturally, when it came to "Filling Out the Form" (another song), in the bracketed space marked "[title of show]," they titled this show [title of show]. The result is perhaps the most generic possible show, which does little more than display the writer/performers' affection for and understanding of the form of the musical, as well as their ambitions and uncertainties, all of this expressed in foul-mouthed contemporary American slang. (The album contains enough cursing to satisfy a rap star, but does not carry a parental advisory sticker.) There is one song in which the two female performers, Susan Blackwell and Heidi Blickenstaff, ponder about each other, "What Kind of Girl Is She," a question that seems to be answered by their follow-up duet, "Secondary Characters." The four singers work up their greatest enthusiasm in "Die Vampire, Die!," a song about the various forms of discouragement facing the creative artist, including actual people and also the voices inside the artist's own head. Here and there, there are reminiscences about childhood (e.g., "A Way Back to Then"). But for the most part, [title of show] never gets beyond its premise. There are some musicals that seem designed to be enjoyed only by people who enjoy musicals. This may be the first musical designed to be enjoyed only by people who enjoy writing musicals. Everyone else is liable to expect it to be about something other than itself. ~ William Ruhlmann

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