In this mini-musical, everything is mini except the talent of the cast. There are three windows with blinds surrounded by bricks suggesting a wall, a few chairs on wheels, a keyboard. There are “Two Nobodies in New York” talking by phones about writing a musical that might win a contest and be produced. Then Jeff the musician and Hunter the writer get together and make “An Original Musical” about themselves making a musical.
There’s Larry joining in on his keyboard and two gals plunging into the make-believe, though both Heidi and Susan each wonder of the other, “What Kind of Girl Is She?” Actually Heidi is competitive and has to work hard to relate to Hunter while Susan is a dancer with a tad of Broadway show experience and a day job she hates but fears to ditch for an unsure alternative.
The four end up creating, performing, thinking about production values, and enjoying the company of each other, plus Larry. They don’t like “Filling Out the Form” and other parts of developing their winning show nor a bad review among the good ones and a lack of follow-up. But on the whole, they share more joys than sorrows.
After an “Awkward Photo Shoot” and a lot of worrying about past and future, a “Finale” has them just putting the show out in front of the audience to “see what happens.” What happens at Venice Theater is that the cast is (except for the scatological prowess of Hunter) appealing to everyone, but the words and music most satisfy the teen-age and especially young adult attendees. Like the characters they are playing, the actors and musician succeed in doing what they obviously love.
