Why do so many musicals feature death and the downtrodden? Why do these characters burst into song? Is this how we come to terms with the less fortunate? Hell in a Handbag Productions is back with the answers. Poor People! is the show. You will laugh until the revolution is won or The Groomer of the Flop’ra (Shane Roberie) gets his comeuppance, pun intended.
This parody musical is a giant send-up of Broadway. The lead character is Li’l Orphan Arnie (Dakota Hughes). “They” have a mean caretaker named Miss A (Sydney Genco). She’s just one of the villains in this mash up. The previously mentioned Groomer is a mask wearing creep with any number of sexual perversions. Add in a conservative freak named Mama Moneybags (Brittney Brown) and the plot thickens.
The tale attended here involves time travel through a manhole. Li’l Arnie escapes the orphanage and falls into Paris, 1815. We are in Les Misèrables territory. Eponine is now Epipen (Taylor Dalton). Fantine is now Pantene (Caitlin Jackson) with significant hair issues. Fagin (David Cerda) from Oliver! appears in a mature guise. Even the Beggar Woman (Elizabeth Lesinski) from Sweeney Todd knows things ain’t right in this world.
Tyler Anthony Smith wrote this hilarious spoof and also plays Nance, the large breasted whore with a heart of gold (or not). Avid musical theater fans should pounce. Perhaps not as elegantly as Fosse Kitty (Matty Bettencourt) who meows through this life-sized cartoon in full jellicle fashion. Maybe hellicle is a better descriptor. Things are indeed rotten when you have no food, missing teeth, STDs, and a Pretty Rich Boy (Tommy Thurston) courting one of the most beautiful prostitutes in all of gay Paree.
Of course it’s a hard knock life. Smith coaxes enormous fun out of the ridiculous plots, blends them with lowbrow humor and rewrites well known ditties to celebrate and offend in equal measure. The show is scandalous, sacrilegious, sassy, silly, sexy and screamingly hilarious. Poor People! has drag elements but that’s not the main point. While not necessarily family friendly, this show never goes too far into the gutter. Or, more accurately, doesn’t linger there too long.
Knowing the shows being lampooned adds to the party. Things happen in “Oui Oui Suite”, a trio number for the villains. Fans of Annie will recognize one of that musical’s best numbers “Easy Street” renamed and repurposed. Three villains making dastardly plans against a freckled face orphan. Truly afflicted theater nerds like me will completely appreciate the homage to that number’s original choreography (by Christopher Kelley).
Stephanie Shaw staged this mayhem and the lunacy is entertaining throughout. There is a song “borrowed” from My Fair Lady which absolutely slays. One friend commented that she witnessed the “most alarming taxidermied rodents” she had ever seen. For a mere tuppence, you too can be alarmed. It’s priceless.
Poor People! is being staged in the basement space of the Chopin Theatre. I suggest a plunge down into the sewers, grab a cocktail at the bar and take a seat. Some unfortunate souls may die of tuberculosis or face another gruesome fate but you will laugh at them, with them and very, very hard.
Poor People! has been extended and is running through June 23, 2024. A VIP ticket will get you very close to the rodents but take the chance! Fosse Kitty will there to protect you (or at least twirl and kick with abandon).