Off-Broadway's [title of show] Creators Launch "the [title of show] show" | Playbill

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News Off-Broadway's [title of show] Creators Launch "the [title of show] show" Hunter Bell and Jeff Bowen, who created [title of show], express their wishes for a Broadway transfer of that musical-within-a-musical in their first "the [title of show] show" video podcast.
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Top: Heidi Blickenstaff, Jeff Bowen, Susan Blackwell; (seated) Hunter Bell. Photo by Carol Rosegg

The creators and cast — who have continued to update their website's blog even after the end of the show's run — have posted the pilot episode of their vodcast. [They jokingly boast about being "picked up" for 13 episodes by "the web."] The website can be found at titleofshow.com/toscasts.htm.

In the nine-minute video (and their signature self-referential style), Bell and Bowen riff and sing on a number of topics including [title of show]'s future, next season's musical fare, a possible "the [tos] show" theme and such upcoming guests as "Stephen Schwartz, Julia Murney, John Kander, Bernadette Peters and Stephen Schwartz" (the quip "guests subject to availability" flashes on the screen during the latter).

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Hunter Bell (Oh, Boy!) and Jeff Bowen (The Who's Tommy), creators and stars, penned the musical which follows a writing team's "race to write and submit a show to the theatre festival" weeks before the deadline. The show was born out of just that experience: Bowen and Bell's race to complete an entry for the 2004 New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF). Featuring a bevy of quips about theatre and musical fanaticism (including the duo's own), the meta-musical (as in real life) enlisted two of the creators' friends, Susan Blackwell (The Heidi Chronicles) and Heidi Blickenstaff (The Full Monty), to appear with them. (Blickenstaff is currently part of the cast of the Broadway-bound The Little Mermaid.)

Tony Award nominee Michael Berresse (The Light in the Piazza, Kiss Me Kate) lead the original creative team as the director-choreographer. Larry Pressgrove (Cats, Children's Letters To God) provided musical arrangements and direction. Courtney Balan and Benjamin Howes served as understudies. The original cast album of the show was released on Ghostlight Records — a division of Sh-K-Boom Records. Joel Moss and Kurt Deustch produce the CD which features Bell, Blackwell, Blickenstaff and Bowen, with musical direction and arrangements by Larry Pressgrove.

The popular musical comedy began its extended commercial run at the Vineyard Theatre July 14, 2006 and played through Oct. 1 following a previous, extended run at the venue Feb. 26-April 23 earlier that year. Kevin McCollum, Laura Camien and the Vineyard Theatre produced.

For more information, visit titleofshow.com.

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[title of show] cast during the "Monkeys and Playbills" musical number. Photo by Carol Rosegg
 
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