There's a cottage industry in satirizing bad sci-fi and horror films of the 1950s and '60s. Numerous musicals have poked fun at flying saucers made from pie pans and monsters composed of carpeting. The cult TV show Mystery Science Theatre 3000 lovingly paid tribute to these grade-Z howlers and won a Peabody Award. The Brain from Planet X, a spoofy pastiche tuner, combines elements from dozens of such ersatz outer-space epics. The book by Bruce Kimmel and David Wechter attempts to derive knowing laughs from the bargain-basement production values and goofy storylines but mostly draws groans. "You wouldn't know the earth from Uranus" is a typical gag. The score by Kimmel does contain some snappy numbers but not enough to overcome the junior-high-school level of the jokes.
A giant disembodied brain (Barry Pearl) and his two bickering alien accomplices (Cason Murphy and Alet Taylor) plot to take over the San Fernando Valley of 1958. They bend the wills of a suburban mom and dad (Amy Bodnar and Rob Evan), leaving the perky daughter (Merrill Grant) and her beatnik boyfriend (Paul Downs Colaizzo) to save the world. Shades of Invasion of the Body Snatchers! This might have been an inspired revue sketch. There are a few genuinely clever moments, such as the overly serious introduction by an unctuous narrator (Benjamin Clark), but Kimmel and Wechter repeat their gimmicks ad nauseam without developing or even altering them. For example, Murphy is forced to constantly scream how stupid Earth people are. That was a riot in Plan Nine from Outer Space because the humor was unintentional. Here it just falls flat.
The cast is certainly hard-working. Bodnar and Evan display magnificent voices, and Taylor makes the most of her role as a man-hungry alien with a refreshingly deadpan manner. The direction by Kimmel is professional, as is Adam Cates' choreography, particularly in "The Brain Tap" number. But this joyously executed madness is interrupted by a decidedly unfunny audience participation bit, showing that when Kimmel and company try too hard for laughs, this Brain is not very smart.
Little Shop of Horrors, Zombies From the Beyond, Bat Boy, and The Rocky Horror Show all did it better.
Presented by Kritzerland, Inc. as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival
at the Acorn Theatre, 410 W. 42nd St., NYC.
Sept. 20-30. Remaining performances: Fri., Sept. 21, 8 p.m.; Tue., Sept. 25, 1 p.m.; Wed., Sept. 26, 4:30 p.m.; Fri., Sept. 28, 4:30 p.m.; Sun., Sept. 30, 8 p.m.
(212) 352-3101 or (866) 811-4111 or www.theatermania.com or www.nymf.org.
Casting by Michael Cassara Casting.