Infamous
celebrity blogger Perez Hilton gets the musical treatment in
Perez Hilton…The Musical! onstage now as part of the 2008 NY
International Fringe Festival.
Perez Hilton Saves the Universe (or at Least the
Greater Los Angeles Area): The Musical! is one of
those shows that manages to successfully skewer the
culture of celebrity worship while simultaneously
reveling in it, and it does so with wicked enthusiasm. The
show is playing through August 22 at the 45 Bleecker Theatre
as part of the 2008 NY International Fringe
Festival. Set in "the not too distant future,"
the show centers on the eponymous Mr. Hilton, the
love-him-or-loathe-him blogger who has parlayed his often
controversial online tabloid rag into a lucrative career.
Hilton is played
by Randy Blair, who also wrote the book and lyrics. With
his pear-shaped body, under-eye circles, and shock of
neon-pink hair, this Perez is alternately catty,
mournful, and ditzy, but always dipped in
self-importance and ambition. He and his pink
Swarovski-studded MacBook are at the center of his
self-created digital universe; stars and hangers-on
swirl around him, angling for space on his obsessively
updated blog.
The show’s
plot is ludicrous, but it's merely a vehicle to trot out
scathing celebrity impersonations and musical numbers.
Terrorists plan to detonate a bomb at the recently
departed Britney Spears’s wake, and they're
using Hilton’s blog to get as many victims to the
scene of the impending crime as possible. Add to
this a Manhunt-fueled love story and some pissed-off,
attention-hungry celebrities, and the madness begins.
The nearly bare
stage is dominated by a video screen on the back wall.
Images of various stars flash on-screen as they are
referenced or call Hilton -- Kirsten Dunst (a.k.a.
Drunkst), Barack Obama, Kirstie Alley. Under a photo
of American Idol judge Randy Jackson the words
"I Wanna Be a Woman, Dawg!” appear. All roads lead
back to Hilton, as famous people constantly harangue
him and his assistant for mentions. The show’s
music is enjoyable if standard fare. You may not remember
the melodies after you leave the theater, but some of
the lyrics do provide some unforgettable imagery
(“Miley Cyrus doing lines off a tranny whore,”
anyone?). The songs, with titles like "Do You Hear the
Celebrities?" and "Blow Them All Away," range from
mock-earnest to baldly vicious, and all are rife with
rapid-fire double entendres and references to stars of
the High School Musical caliber.
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