This was the intimate musical presented by the York Theatre last winter, which told one story — five times — in the distinctly recognizable styles of various practitioners of the art. This is not an all-new notion, mind you; Weber and Fields used to do this sort of thing back around the turn of the century. (The century before last, that is, with Lillian Russell amongst their troupe). Rodgers and Hart did it with "Rose of Arizona," a one-act satire included in a 1926 revue; Charles Gaynor did it two decades later with "The Gladiola Girl." These were both generalized spoofs. More to the point, Walter and Jean Kerr gave us "Great Dane a-Comin'" in Touch and Go (1947). "You're a queer one," Hamlet sang to Ophelia.

But that's neither here nor there. Eric Rockwell and Joanne Bogart do their job extremely well. The Musical of Musicals is virtually interwoven with allusions to this and that and the other, coming at you so quickly that you can barely keep up. Sure, you can see most of the (corny) jokes and (bad) puns coming; but the authors surprise us with familiar old lines and lyrical snatches out of context. Things range from pretty funny to extremely funny, which is good enough for me.

Mr. Rockwell has clearly spent far too many years in stock and amateur orchestra pits; either that, or he is a talented composer. Unlike the folks over at Forbidden Broadway, Rockwell provides all new songs of his own, except for something from Puccini in the playlet entitled "Aspects of Junita." (Girl: You wrote it yourself? Boy: Do you know opera? Girl: No. Boy: Yes, I wrote it myself.) If the music is new, the vamps aren't; Rockwell cleverly tells us precisely where we are, again and again, as each new song approaches.

Ms. Bogart, too, doesn't miss a trick. She does cadge lyrics, in the nicest way possible. Plucky heroine: "I'll wash my socks and comb my hair / And rinse out my long underwear / I'll pluck my brows and nose hairs, too." Or the inspirational anthem in which the alto tells the girl to follow her dream on "that island with the mountain and the rainbow and the stream." And the big R & H production number, "That was delicious clam dip," features a woman singing "I'd like to say a word for guacamole."

As I said before, if you don't get it, you might as well not get it.

"Corn" is followed by "A Little Complex" (guess who?), "Dear Abby" (guess who?), the aforementioned "Aspects of Junita" (guess who?) and "Speakeasy" (guess who?). Your enjoyment of each will depend, I suppose, on your fondness for the targets of the satire. The Sondheim piece features a conflicted young songwriter called Billy-baby, Billy-bubi. ('When you have to strain to explain the arcane / It's bound to sound profound.") The villain is a "landlord slash artist slash demon." In Rockwell's musical setting, one slash goes a long way. The ingénue, Jeune, is apparently related to June/April of Company (with a splash of Sweeney's Johanna, with blathering birds in her head). But something in the line reading makes me think of June/John, a chorus member with a short but memorable bit in Anyone Can Whistle. I mention this only to demonstrate how Rockwell and Bogart keep you guessing, as echoes and memories fly in at all times from all sides.

The minimusicals are followed by a grand finale called — what else? — "Done." (Think of a bouncy vamp a la Hamlisch.) The liner notes, happily, include the text. The booklet is illustrated with tongue-in-cheek logos for each of the musicals, keenly realized by York artistic director and resident designer James Morgan.

The four-person cast is headed by the songwriters. Rockwell sings the villains as well as serving as the one-man band. (The Musical of Musicals has its five obvious targets, although the piano accompaniment keeps bringing to mind a sixth composer — Harvey Schmidt.) Lyricist Bogart sings the Aunt Eller/Elaine Stritch characters, Lovette George sings the girls and Craig Fols plays the boys. The characterizations are right on, with all four giving us line reading after line reading cadged from old original cast albums. Pamela Hunt directed.

One wonders how The Musical of Musicals might fare in a larger market. For an audience of musical theatre enthusiasts, though, it is quite tasty.  Continued...