Last night I went to see One Night Stand, one of those one-night-only-in-cinemas film events. In this case, it was a documentary on a one-night-only-in-a-legitimate-theater event, the 24 Hour Musicals. This would be a musical version of the 24 hour play… in other words, this is short plays that are written, rehearsed, and performed all within a 24 hour period, so it’s a rush, rush, theater by the seat of your pants kind of thing. (It’s actually derived from a concept that a pal of mine invented, the 24 hour comic.)
At the start of the process, the involved actors each sang a bit of a song, to display to the writers their range and style, so that appropriate material could be written for them. Some of the actors were veteran broadway musical performers, folks who starred in Rent or in The Producers and so on… but one of the performers was Rachel Dratch, best known for her days in the Saturday Night Live cast, who made a statement making it clear that she was not a professional musical performer, then said that she would offer up a song from the last musical she’d been in, and my ears perked up with a good idea of what I was likely to hear. And yes, she went and belted out a few lines from “Suppertime”, one of Clark Gesner’s songs from You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown.
And thinking about it, I’d sure like to have seen her perform Snoopy on stage.
(Canadian readers can actually see this film in theaters during the coming month; interested US viewers will have to catch it on DVD or download. Information here.)
