May the Farce Be With You

Two theater companies get their spoof on with Star Wars: The Musical

The Jazz Central venue, home turf for Rarely Done, explains why Tursi was giving the curtain speech. But he also made clear that Star Wars is a collaboration between two companies, his own and Witanowski’s eponymously named Wit’s End Players. Todd Panek, goateed brother of Joey Panek and husband of actress Aubry Ludington Panek (she’s a nominee at this year’s Syracuse New Times Syracuse Area Live Theater (SALT) Awards), has been more associated with Tursi’s Rarely Done. 

Although both guys are known quantities, it is impossible to know who put in what in the show. Witanowski directs and takes several small roles, most impressively as a Storm Trooper, but Panek does not appear on stage. What we learn as Star Wars roars on is that there are two conflicting sensibilities at play here, whether they belong to the two companies or the two creators. One worships the Star Wars saga and relishes every sliver of Lucas trivia. The other one thinks the entire enterprise is a hoot and that every Jedi knight deserves his own whoopee cushion. Such an approach guarantees you never get too much of the same thing.

Take the no small matter of production values. As even two community theater companies in tandem have close to zero percent of the financial resources of 20th Century Fox, there’s an understandable urge to just chuck it all, and sure enough, there is no set. Many of the props are junkyard resources, like the used football padding and the automobile bike rack. Princess Leia waves a 1992-vintage 3½-inch floppy disk. But some of the costumes are first-rate, like Darth Vader’s helmet, cape and boots and Chewbacca’s fur suit. Director Witanowski might have just been following the script, but he is prudent to show us more quality just when we think Star Wars might be only a fraternity skit that ran on.

Action begins with foot-stomping hilarity when hand-carried signs with a mock intro spoof the ascending credits from the movie, ending with a visual gag. But Witanowski and Panek’s aims are clearly a bit more ambitious. A skit is at most 10 minutes. Not only are they balancing this love vs. laughter bifurcation for the property itself, but they’ve got to keep the action going for two hours.

The way to keep holding the audience is to alternate two modes. The first is a precise, admiring spoof of the original property, something that all devout Star Wars worshipers can love. The second is an uproarious travesty, a no-holds-barred romp where you all but forget what happened in the movie.

In the first mode you have Uncle Owen (Lanny Freshman) and Aunt Beru (Marcia Mele), non-comic characters who don’t lend themselves to parody. Just including such characters shows that Witanowski and Panek are being faithful to the original script. Even the space cowboy Han Solo (Jordan Glaski) can generate laughter with mild exaggeration. 

Supreme in this mode are the golden C-3P0 (Peter Irwin) and diminutive R2-D2 (Binaifer Dabu), who both compete for the Frank Gorshin-Rich Little Award, genuinely bringing the screen characters alive on stage. Alive, but subverted. Irwin’s C-3P0 has the beginnings of rebellion under the character’s sissy deference. Dabu’s close-to-ground robot, on tiny sneakers rather than wheels, comes up with all the squeaks and whistles, but she punctuates them with rolled eyes and a thrust tongue.

On the other side we have a lanky, over-the-top Luke Skywalker (Dylan Montrond), a leading man who’s more fruitcake than beefcake. Opposite him is the full-throated, full-bosomed Princess Leia (Jodie Baum), who’s a bit more worldly wise than we remember. Baum, who justly won a SALT Award for her Musical of Musicals: The Musical on this same stage, can easily swing from the imperiousness required of a princess to cut-loose mayhem. In what might have been an unscripted ad-lib, she breaks out of character, responds to calls for her own name, and cracks jokes on who might be pursuing “a fat chick in a white dress.”

Reigning supreme on the wild side, stealing scene after scene, is that supposed voice of Jedi wisdom, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Josh Mele). Forget that Sir Alec Guinness, a paragon of British restraint, ever had anything to do with this role. For all his bellowing and pregnant pauses, what comes out of his mouth is mostly nonsense. Mele’s dramatic hesitations feel like he’s teasing the audience and director Witanowski that he might have forgotten his lines, only to roar back with verbal firecrackers, giving hot feet to any doubters. As one of the best tenors in community theater, Mele also distinguishes his portions of the Smith-Nolen score, as in his first act duet with Luke.

Two of the best-known local performers also appear in Star Wars: The Musical, one heard but not seen, the other seen but not heard. Bill Molesky, our closest approximation of James Earl Jones, provides the projected voice for actor Derek Potocki’s Darth Vader. And clean-shaven Gennaro Parlato floats across the stage as a Death Star. His one allowed expression is a grimace in reaction to a crack about his size; one chance earns one laugh.

Smith and Nolen should be thrilled that their derivative score gets a hearing, and the numbers given to Josh Mele and Jodie Baum sound best. “The Walls are Closing In,” sung by a chorus in the garbage compactor scene has merit. Otherwise, don’t wait for the CD.

Star Wars: The Musical is playing to packed houses and will live on in local community theater lore for years to come.    

This production runs through Sunday, March 7. See Times Table for information.