Rude Mechs, the Austin-based theater company, is credited with the creation of I’ve Never Been So Happy, a farcical look at the Wild West now fighting hard for laughs in L.A. Billed as a world premiere even though it ran last April in Austin, Happyhas the slapdash feel of a meal prepared by too many cooks. The story is beyond silly, the characters are loonytune caricatures, the songs are loud, many and mostly forgettable.
What saves the feast from being completely inedible is the manic energy of the 16-strong company. Singing and dancing up a storm, leaping round the stage in their kooky cowpoke costumes, they fight wildly and valiantly to make the show work. A six-piece band, located downstage-center, also manages to put some zing into the proceedings. And Miwa Matryek's original animation lends a welcome touch of spice.
I’ve Never Been So Happy’s basic problem is that it can't decide on what it wants to be. One minute it's a satire of cowboy movies, the next it's parodying musicals like Oklahoma!, then it abruptly changes gears and becomes a Pixar cartoon with two dachshunds (cutiepies Jenny Larson and Paul Soileau) conspiring to find a way to help their respective masters, Annabellee (Meg Sullivan) and Jeremy (E. Jason Liebrecht), get hitched.
Other characters include a radical-feminist mother (the rambunctious Cami Alys), an overbearing radio-show host (Lowell Bartholomee) and "the last wild mountain cat in the west."
To go with all the Lone Star campiness, Rude Mech turned the lobby, patios and even the restrooms of the Kirk Douglas Theater into a country-western shindig replete with barkers, BBQ and beer.
