Nine singers will try to cover 200 years of American musical theater in 90 minutes, on a stage that seats 50.
The show is “A Complete History of The American Musical.. in 90 minutes or less,” and it opens Parson’s Nose Theater‘s season on September 12. Barry Gordon co-wrote it, directs its music and plays the professor who narrates it. He and Gary B. Lamb are the company’s co-artistic directors.
Six performances run across three weekends — Saturdays at 7:00 p.m. on September 12, 19 and 26, and Sundays at 3:00 p.m. on September 13, 20 and 27.
Lamb directs. Lloyd Cooper accompanies and arranges. The program moves from George M. Cohan and Irving Berlin through Rodgers and Hammerstein to Stephen Sondheim.
The idea came to Gordon in 2018, when Lance Davis and Mary Chalon were traveling and wanted something on the stage while they were away. The couple founded Parson’s Nose in May 2000 and stepped down when the previous season closed in May.
“I’ve been a musical theater junkie since I was seven years old,” Gordon said in a January 2023 interview with Pasadena Now, ahead of an earlier staging.
That earlier version reached back further than its title suggests. “It’s all show tunes, but we go back to the very, very beginning of musical theater,” Gordon said in the same interview, describing a program that opened with ancient Greece and ran past “Hamilton.”
He was blunt about the pedagogy. “We keep it funny, but they’re going to learn a little bit about the history of this incredible genre,” he said.
The theater sits one block from City Hall, in a 1922 mortuary chapel designed by Marston and Van Pelt. The company restored it and has performed there since 2015. It holds 50 seats, and pays its actors above Actors’ Equity scale, according to the company.
The theater is at 95 North Marengo Avenue, Suite 110, with the entrance on Holly Street. Tickets are sold through Tix.com; orders confirm automatically and tickets are held at the desk on arrival. Parking is at 150 East Holly Street and in a second lot 50 yards west on Holly Street. The theater lists weekend rates of $5 before 5:00 p.m. and $10 after, and says parking is free after 6:00 p.m. and on Sundays.
Whether nine people can actually get through two centuries in an hour and a half is, by Gordon’s own accounting, an open question. “I think we’ve covered our bases and really given a thorough treatment, and to do it in 90 minutes is going to be really fun and really crazy,” he said in 2023. “But we can do it.”
NEED TO KNOW
Parson’s Nose Theater presents “A Complete History of The American Musical.. in 90 minutes or less” over three weekends, on Saturdays, September 12, 19 and 26, at 7:00 p.m., and on Sundays, September 13, 20 and 27, at 3:00 p.m. The theater is at 95 North Marengo Avenue, Suite 110, Pasadena, CA 91101, with the entrance on Holly Street. Parking is at 150 East Holly Street and in a second lot 50 yards west on Holly Street; the theater lists weekend rates of $5 before 5:00 p.m. and $10 after, and says parking is free after 6:00 p.m. and on Sundays. Orders confirm automatically, and tickets are held at the desk on arrival. For more, call (626) 345-5116 or visit parsonsnose.com.
Ticket link: https://www.tix.com/ticket-sales/parsonsnose/1475?productionidlist=241230
