Emily Schwartz's "Hey! Mr. Spaceman!," a sci-fi spoof musical comedy presented by the Strange Tree Theatre company, is melt-the-hearts-of-evil-old-misers fun.
The company effectively re-creates the feel of an old fashioned drive-in movie theater on the Building Stage. We get a movie screen, a live band playing '50s standards and a snack shop. Since this show is created and performed largely by people born in the 1980s, it seems that the 1950s have officially passed from the realm of nostalgia into that of myth.
The show begins with a group of teens watching a movie about the evil Martian Queen (Jennifer Henry sporting a Madonna-style cone bra, which at some point surely must have been science fiction) plotting to conquer the Earth with the aid of an ostensibly ferocious, low-budget Robot Boy (Michael Downey).
After the movie, we meet our protagonist, Jean Jenkins, (Kate Nawrocki) who, we learn through the first of many catchy ballads, is shunned by the other teens for being a "Death Magnet" because her boyfriends always die tragically.
Meanwhile, the Robot Boy comes to Earth (the movie apparently having been a simulcast documentary) having been secretly programmed by a rogue Martian scientist to be kind and peaceful. He meets Jean (who has lost her glasses and initially can't tell he's a robot) and they begin a touching romance. Of course, this being the '50s, paranoia and prejudice ensue, but they ensue delightfully.
Lesser parodists approach their source material with condescension, the great ones with sincere affection - and Schwartz is one of the great ones. The production's biggest flaw is that some of the high-concept theatrical flourishes, (such as trapeze work by the Martians) feel out of place since there simply aren't enough of them, but that is easily forgiven. "Hey! Mr. Spaceman!" should be seen by anyone who appreciates craft, heart and wit.
Reviewed by Centerstage!
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