My overall impression
A community theater tries to mount an original musical, “Bus Stop”, based off of a famous painting of the same name. Some actors are a perfect fit and others are a stretch-amusing complications arise.
The play starts with an audition for “Bus Stop”, with about every third audition pulled from the audience. Then rehearsals begin and tension mounts as opening day approaches and the production is falling apart.
I thought one of the strongest aspects of the play were the musical numbers-I was impressed by the songs themselves as well as the ensemble performances! It made me wish “Bus Stop” actually existed so I could see it!
As far as all of the rehearsal “mishaps”, it was a little repetitive, but redeemed by the strong characters of The Mexican Worker, The Black Man, and The Diva, amusing twists in the standard play within a play debacles, and very well-acted roles.
One thing I would have liked to see MORE of was audience involvement. It’s a risk and would have to be managed by confident improv actors, but I think more pulling from the audience for auditions and playing off of them for laughs would result in an even funnier and more exciting opening bit!
Altogether, it was impressive to have such a large cast singing & dancing and pulling it all together at the end!
