Young performers explode in ‘Big Bang’ Belfast Maskers present a musical extravaganza

Theatergoers aren’t just an audience in the Belfast Maskers’ latest offering. They are potential backers for a musical extravaganza about the history of the world, budgeted at $83.5 million, with a cast of 318 actors, 6,428 costumes, 1,400 wigs and 302 prosthetic devices.

The musical “The Big Bang” starts when “man crawled out of the mire … before the invention of fire” and abruptly ends with Woodstock. The two-man cast, accompanied by pianist Ruth Gelsinger, performs in the borrowed apartment of Dr. and Mrs. Lipbalm, a vacationing proctologist and his wife.

While the songs are funny sendups of traditional show tunes, it is the way the characters use the props in the apartment that hurls the audience into hysterical laughter. Curtains turn into togas, a plant supplies Indians their feathers, fringe from a decorative pot is transformed into a lion’s mane and two umbrellas become the hoop skirt on a Southern belle. This is by far the cleverest bit in the show.

Its creators, composer Jed Feuer and author and lyricist Boyd Graham, first performed “The Big Bang” off Broadway in March 2000. The show moves at a frenetic pace and runs less than 90 minutes without an intermission. The Maskers’ three-quarter round stage works perfectly for this show and the intimate performance space feels like a spacious living room.

As the two writers hawking their show, Dan Cyr and Cole Lundquist give wonderful performances considering their age and limited theatrical experiences. Cyr graduated from Bucksport High School in June and Lundquist will be a junior there this fall. These are teen-agerswho weren’t even alive when the first musical extravaganza hit Broadway in the late 1970s. They may remember when “Cats” closed, but not the year it opened.

Because they are so close in age, have similar builds, features, voices and give such equal performances, it’s difficult to remember who’s who after the play’s over. It would have better served the production had director Peter Clain, a teacher at Bucksport High School, cast different-looking actors, but it’s doubtful he could have drawn better performances out of other teens.

In his turn as a lion lamenting his job as a Christian-devouring feline in a hysterical takeoff on “Cats,” Cyr is delightfully dishy. Later, he captures just the right amount of sugar and vinegar as the umbrella-clad Southern belle. But it’s his turn as the Irish tenor sadly contemplating his last potato -“Should I have you boiled? Should I have you mashed? Or should I make you a knish?” – that shows off his potential as a singer and his chops as an actor.

While Lundquist sings just as well, if not quite as strongly, as Cyr, he sometimes misses the depth of the satire. His Sinatra’s recognizable due to the cigarette and the glass, but he can’t quite croon like Ol’ Blue Eyes. His Eve is as intoxicating as his mother of Gandhi is self-sacrificing saint. Considering his limited stage experience, Lundquist gives an amazing performance.

Clain’s greatest strength as a director is his hold over the show’s pacing. It starts off with a bang and never lets up until it fizzles out in the end with the Lipbalms’ unexpected return. The director deserves praise for the performances he’s wrung out of these young actors, but he could have pushed them even further, as much of the shows over-the-top humor demands.

Mark Martelson’s set, Gail Savitz’s lights and the large crew it must take to make this show work so seamlessly deserve applause. For every person on stage, there must be at least four more working behind the scenes.

“The Big Bang” is a delightfully frivolous show perfectly suited to Maine’s summertime mood. While an extensive knowledge of Broadway musicals is not required to enjoy the production, it will help turn those funny scenes into hysterical ones and make for lively conversation in the car on the drive home.

“The Big Bang” will be performed through July 28 at the Belfast Maskers’ Front Street theater. For more information, call 338-9668.