“BUKOWSICAL!” HISTORY

Certain dates immediately register as cultural landmarks in our history: May 29th, 1913 (the premiere of “The Rite of Spring”); Sept. 22, 1989 (the premiere of “Baywatch”). To these illustrious dates, we add March 17, 2006, the opening night of “Bukowsical!”, a musical based very (very) loosely on the life of famed writer Charles Bukowski. What follows is a short recounting of the birth and young childhood of this slice of musical theatre history. (Cue wavy flashback lines here.)

It was April 2001, a time of innocence and unbridled merriment in our country’s history. Ipods did not yet exist. George Bush was hated only by half our country, not the world. And Spencer Green was a writer with TV shows like “In Living Color,” “Mad TV,” and “Fairly Oddparents” to his credit, along with the obligatory unproduced pilots and scientific experiments gone awry. He was also a member of a “tightcircle” called The Stump, an internet chat room/forum populated by hundreds of entertainment industry writers, actors, directors, and producers, most of whom were vastly more well-known, rich, and powerful than him.

At one of the various Stump get-togethers, Green met a gentleman named Gary Stockdale, a brilliant musician and composer whose long list of work included: creating the theme to TV’s “Sabrina, the Teenage Witch”; many projects with Penn and Teller, which earned him two Emmy nominations for their TV shows; and an appearance in the pilot of the classic TV show “Cop Rock.” Stockdale and Green talked of pigs and wings and also of their love for Broadway shows. The next day, for Gary’s amusement, Green hastily posted on The Stump a list of fictional Broadway shows that were playing, with titles like “Bergen Belsen Bingo,” “Aack! A Cathy Musical!” and…yes, “Bukowsical!” Green figured that Charles Bukowski, a writer known for some of the most defiantly and unabashedly profane material ever committed to the page, would make a most unlikely subject for a Broadway musical. Hence the joke.

But Stockdale, for whatever sick and demented reason, was intrigued by the idea of “Bukowsical!” and suggested that he and Green actually write some tunes based upon Green’s feeble joke and some of the even more feeble song titles he had suggested. Eventually, they cobbled some lyrics together for three songs and he composed music that amazingly gave them a legitimately “up” musical theatre sheen. These songs were introduced at a performance venue called Sit ‘n’ Spin, where a cast of four sung them and that, Stockdale and Green imagined, was that. And it was. Until…

…roughly three years later, or as statisticians like to call it, 2005. Stockdale was in his recording studio with his friend Dean Cameron, a very talented actor, writer, and director, best known from his appearances in films like “Summer School” and cable-repeat classics like “Ski School” and “Miracle Beach.” Cameron listened to the three “Bukowsical” songs from years gone by and suggested that Stockdale and Green expand the basic conceit of “Bukowsical!” into a one-act late night show. A structure for the show was thus created: a backer’s audition being held by a fictional theatre troupe called The Sacred Angel Fist Circle of Note Gang (SAFCNG), in which they essentially beg the audience for money to mount their latest project, “Bukowsical!” The joke, of course, is that “Bukowsical!” is just one of countless and highly inappropriate ideas that this troupe has had over the years, like “The Texas Chainsaw Musical,” “Make Mine Kampf,” “Chappaquiddical,” and so on. The members of SAFCNG do not lack the skill or talent to put these ideas across; they simply lack the basic sense to know that these ideas should never ever ever (ever) have been thought of as the foundations for full-scale musicals. But, because they so fervently believe in the power of theatre to change the world, they keep on plugging away, knowing that some day the world will eventually catch on.

Cameron pitched the idea of “Bukowsical!” to Sacred Fools, a small, respected theatre in Los Angeles which had been putting on acclaimed productions like “Gorey Stories” and “La Bete” and had the sensibility that would seem a match for “Bukowsical!” On little more than the concept and the three songs, the show was given a go toward the end of 2005. Stockdale and Green began working on the story which consisted of very, very loosely using Bukowski’s own life as a thread on which to hang the songs, and then, of course, writing those songs and striking a balance between traditional musical forms, parody, and a whole lot of perverse, scatological lyrics. By the end of January 2006, a wonderful cast had been assembled: Christina Byron, Kathi Copeland, Matthew Garland, Ian R. Gould, Michael Lanahan, David Lawrence, Steven Memel, and Fleur Phillips. Stockdale and Green continued to write songs and lines as rehearsals commenced and Cameron sped through the process like a bullet and in little more than six weeks, the show had actually coalesced.

The one question that hung less than lightly over all of these efforts: would the company or crew actually hear a discouraging word from anyone connected to the family or estate of Charles Bukowski? (For the record, he had died in 1994.) A stage production that incorporated his actual writings and that was slated to open around the same time as our “Bukowsical!” had been cancelled, apparently, because Bukowski’s widow Linda was not pleased with it. “Bukowsical!”, of course, is not a serious treatement of Bukowski and, as you can imagine, is as much about bad musical theatre conventions as it is about Bukowski. Also, there is (quite intentionally) not a single line quoted from any of his work. Our examination of his life is a parody of bad Broadway attempts at similar musical bios; it is all intended to sound like the show’s creators had never read anything by Bukowski and all they know about him was obtained by a quick scan of an online biography.

Nevertheless, one night, as Stockdale was on his way to a musical gig, his phone rang and there on his caller I.D.: Charles Bukowski. He thought it was a gag but, lo and behold, he found himself speaking with Bukowski’s widow who demanded to know what exactly was going on. Soon, Cameron and producer John Mitchell received letters from her lawyers also demanding to know, but in impeccable legalese. When Mitchell explained that they were not violating any copyright infringements, they heard nothing more from Bukowski’s widow or from her lawyers. And still have not.

Opening night, that historic date of March 17, 2006, was enthusiastically received by a packed house and the show scored very good reviews from the “L.A. Weekly” (“riotously funny”), “The Los Angeles Times” (“an uproarious romp”), and “Backstage West,” which claimed: “It’s terrific fun, and so wrong in all the right ways.” The show was immediately extended by the kind folks at Sacred Fools; originally slated to run for five weeks, it wound up running four months. As that run came to a close, the idea of expanding it was broached and soon Stockdale and Green were back to writing new material and songs, filling up the musical and story gaps that had been left open because of the time constraints of a 50-minute late night show.

This time, though, there was a major scheduling conflict because Cameron, who had starred in “Love Tapes” in Los Angeles, had committed to act in a Minneapolis production of it during the month before the revised version of “Bukowsical!” was set to open. Enter Jessie Marion, another gifted director and choreographer, who happened to be Cameron’s wife and also happened to be the director of “Love Tapes” (and had won an L.A. Weekly Award as Best Director for her efforts). Marion, who had choreographed one of the numbers for the original run of “Bukowsical!”, agreed to take over the direction and while she and Cameron left town to do “Love Tapes,” Stockdale and Green hurriedly wrote six new songs in the span of about five weeks. The cast heroically adapted to the very strange schedule, first learning new material while blocking scenes around songs that did not yet exist, then waiting for Marion to return while they learned those new songs. Marion returned, took charge, and managed to make it a hit all over again.

The new, expanded 90-minute version of “Bukowsical!” successfully ran in fall and winter of 2006 at the Sacred Fools Theatre. In February of 2007, “Bukowsical!” was invited to appear at New Mexico’s prestigious Revolutions Festival, host to an eclectic group of productions from places as far off as Germany, Britain, and Australia. Tricklock, the theatre company that hosted the festival, was founded by Joe Peracchio, an actor/writer/director well-versed in bold and challenging theatrical productions. Peracchio is now the current director of “Bukowsical!”, as it looks forward to another run in Los Angeles and a berth in New York’s Fringe Festival.

“Bukowsical!” is a show for people who love musicals and for those who hate them. Similarly, no knowledge of Bukowski is necessary but if you do know his work, chances are that you will enjoy what is done here. Besides, how can you go wrong with a show whose first line cheerfully begins: “What’s the feeling you get when you’re down on your luck/And you’re too drunk to fuck?”