No one mourns the Twisted.
No one cries they won’t return (…of Jafar, terrible movie. Just terrible.)
No one lays a Jasmin on their graaaave.
The good man scorns the Twisted.
Through their lives our children learn.
What we miss— when we misbehaaaave.
And goodness knows— the Twisted’s lives are zany!
Goodness knows— the Twisted make you laugh! (until you cry!)
This here show— it’s called Twisted and it’s filthy— come see why…
Thank you, very much, now where’s my Tony?
Yadda yadda yadda, Matthew Peterson Street Lamp Community Theatre is proud to present: Dirty Disney Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier (an original Starkid production.) With production credits by Matthew Peterson (and occasionally his wife Stephanie Peterson, wife’s boss Laura Woods, and their friend Lithia Knopp) this racy, raunchy, ride-of-a-good time is just nuts. NUTS, I tell you. Buckle up, double down, and all that jazz. Because you’re in for a doozey and it’s one hell of a ride.
Starkid productions, who are known for their spoof-style musicals (particularly The Trail to Oregon) have really outdone themselves with the libretto, as well as the music and lyrics for Twisted. It’s a show that stands on its own as hilarious and clever and insightful, regardless of what sort of cast you have thrown into the mix. (The Trail to Oregon is heavily dependent on a strong, hilarious cast who understands improv and timing in order for that show to be successful, just to give you an example.) Fortunately for Street Lamp Community Theatre, and the production-team of Matthew Peterson, the cast assembled for this show is both talented and funny, which just makes the overall show experience fantastic.
The whole aesthetic of the show is cobbled together and intentionally shoddy, which just adds layers of humor to the overall experience. You get Halloween-store-grade costumes for a few of the more iconic, totally-not-copywritten-characters, and some rehearsal threads for the rest. There’s a big wavy beige block that dominates the set for entrances and exits. (Someone told me at the end it was Sand Dunes. I’m blonde; work with me here) and there’s some lighting (actually the lighting is really impressive and leans heavily on its red essences to enhance the comedy of the show as a whole.) Peterson has done a spectacular job of making this show look unpolished, which is actually harder than just half-assing a show. And he’s got all the right people in all the right places. Nah— you know what? I’m just going to go steal a line from the ‘Secret-Santa-Bios-Trainwreck’ in the program…which is actually a line clepted from the show itself—
“THIS IS ALL MATT PETERSON’S FAULT.”
The show as a whole is trying to do ‘backwards villain origin story’ that is twisted— haha, get it?— six ways to Sunday. It’s (not-an-official-license-or-copywright-of) Disney. Done dirty. Totally f**king filthy. With more Easter Eggs than the Easter Bunny on Easter Sunday. Anyone who grew up with Aladdin the ’92, real-animation version, will laugh their ass off. Anyone who didn’t grow up with that version— come anyway. It’s hilarious. I could write a dissertation-length paper trying to list out all the jokes, Easter Eggs, and nonsense-shenanigans happening in this show, but we’ll leave it to your imagination and say that the best way to discover this whole new world is to come and see it.
Peterson and his one-man-band of chaos really has all the right ideas. Mostly in the right order too! There’s singing, dancing, good casting, and all that other stuff that makes for a hilarious night out at the theatre. Fair warning— this one isn’t for the kids. Like seriously, I stopped counting the number of F-bombs and there’s a whole song called “Take Off Your Clothes.” It’s like Disney and Avenue Q had a baby and who foster-raised by HBO and Spamalot.
The cast— in back-ass-wards order because why not— Kirby Smith, Jess Simonson, Austin Prochaska, Jered Price, Daniel Michel, Molly McVicker, Kaitlyn Jones, Lindsay Hamilton, Natalie Giovan, Kody Coudon, Kalea Bray, Eric Bray, Heather Bounds, and Jordan Baumiller— is awesome. That’s all. Moving on.
No, seriously— this cast is living their best lives as spectacular spoof artists. And what’s more— they really do get these impressive harmonies blended beautifully during the big ensemble numbers like “Dream A Little Harder” and “No One Remember Achmed.” They dance (Peterson’s work.) They sing (Peterson. Again.) They move and act well (did you know he directed the damn thing too?) It’s a really well-polished cast. You get three designated ensemble members— Heather Bounds, Kody Coudon, and Kaitlyn Jones— who pop up here, there, everywhere, and lead the chants for ‘TIGERF**KER’ when that happens! Keep your eye out for Coudon, though— they’ll scare the living daylights out of you when they just APPEAR from nowhere during the song’s titular number. This is also where a whole host of other cast-performers show up as various certainly-absolutely-not-Disney villains show up in tacky-but-perfect mock-up costumes. Keep your eyes on the vivacious Molly McVicker, as Sea Witch (though you also hear McVicker trying to be a damn spoonful of saccharine sweetness during the opening number in her sister-suffragette-wannabe-skirt) in “Twisted” as well as Jess Simonson, who just pops up wearing puppies because why not?
What would a dirty, filthy, Disney-done-wrong show be without puppets? Austin Prochaska and Lindsay Hamilton have you got covered in that department. Prochaska, as the potty-mouthed-parrot Iag— I mean… “Bird” and Hamilton as “Monkey” (I can’t remember the stupid monkey’s name, they cut the character entirely from the Disney-touring stage musical version…) and these two puppeteers are equal parts fun and a good time. You get to see them doubled-up here and there, particularly as the angry mustachio’d army from “Peexar” during “No One Remembers Achmed.”
This is all Matt Peterson’s fault. Jered Price as Captain. Of the guard. Who may or may not have an actual name. SO. MUCH. DEADPAN. My face hurts from laughing at Price’s doltish-deadpan delivery. He’s got callback lines— “bad news” and “this is all Ja’far’s fault.” And that’s literally it but he’s ridiculously funny.
Daniel Michel, who pops up hither and thither as varying ensemble characters— like the fussy, mouthy Bread Seller in the opening number and later as the ‘unnamed scar-face-lion’ in “Twisted”— but his true delight is popping up as Djinn. In a full-on sky-blue body suit. #SendHelp #IDiedLaughing #TheEnd Michel gets the nonsense of the comedy and in his Disney-send-up-line delivery too. It’s a bit part (everything in this insane-show is a bit part and a send up all at once) but he nails it. Hands down.
Talk about a cameo bit-part but Kalea Bray is slaying it as Sultan. The flying-finger-mustache moment will have you laughing so hard— advice: please visit the toilets before the show starts. The affected squeaky voice for the character is off the hook as well. Shenanigans and nonsense and again, so much presence of mind to make that character ridiculous while playing it straight and stoic.
You get…heart feels like the wrong word for such a ridiculous and silly show— but you do get healthy doses of heart and sincerity. A few of which come from Natalie Giovan as Princess— Princess. Yep. Totally not a Middle-Eastern-night-blooming-flower even if her teal-turquoise costume from Spirit says “Arabian Fairytale Princess.” Giovan has a beautiful voice that lends itself to these sweet songs (with atrocious and rancid lyrics) and you really get to hear her lovely sound during “Everything and More.” She plays the character deep, despite it being a surface-based-caricature of, well, You-Know-Who. NO— not that You-Know-Who…this isn’t Puffs for pity’s sake!
You get an equally beautiful sound and a really sincere take on Sherrezade (how she ended up in this show— the character, not Jess Simonson— because there’s like literally one reference to her in the source material) particularly when she sings opposite of Ja’far. Simonson gets to waltz through the ‘princess track’, even though Sherrezade isn’t actually the princess in this one and it’s a nice, simple change of pace to all the other over-the-top caricature style characters that have been scripted into this show.
Who’s left? Oh yeah— Baumiller. I don’t even have the words for the riotous and uproarious level of laughter this singing, dancing, clowning buffoonery that he’s bringing to the stage. Forget the nonsense as ‘the other Vizier’ because that’s fun but you’ll lose your mind laughing when he does whatever it is he’s doing with Prince Achmed. There’s a flavor of Farquaad and a splash of Doctor Evil and a whole sprinkle of some other unnamable nonsense in this. His facial expressions are second-to-none in this production and his handle on comedy is superior. Try not to laugh at Baumiller’s antics all throughout this show; you’ll probably give yourself a hernia from holding it in.
Smarmy, schmoozy, street-wising-Jim-Carey-with-Jack-Nicholson-hybrid-Gaston-wannabe-poser-boy. I mean— Aladdin. Played by the charming and talented Kirby Smith, who really gets to showcase his versatility as a performer in this role, which is so not the sweet, innocent and quirky ruffian from the film. You get a voice and a half, a comedic routine and then some and humorous timing that really zings. His facial expressions and his overall general exasperating body language is giving Baumiller a run for his money. “I Steal Everything” and “Take Off Your Clothes” are just two of the numbers where you get to watch Kirby strut his stuff and its amazeballs in that “eww I feel like I need a shower” kind of way.
Who can say if you’re life will be changed for the better—
Because you saw it— Becauuuuuse you saw it— you have been changed…for…
Wait. What? What do you mean we forgot the guy the show is about? Well f**k.
This is all Ja’far’s fault! Or maybe it’s all Eric Bray’s fault! (Nah. Totally Matthew Peterson. All his fault.) Bray is sensational in the leading role for this steaming-shenanigan-steamer-on-wheels. There are earnest and awkward moments of truthful heart, there are hilarious moments of comedic genius, and the belted sustain that Bray achieves at the end of “Happy Ending” I mean, Idina Menzel shivered somewhere. (There’s just enough musical copy-catting going on in this show that you feel like you know exactly what you’re hearing and then have no idea what you’re hearin. Simultaneously.) Bray really nails all the complexities of this character, which feels so strange since you can’t imagine that in a send-up-spoof a character would have complexities to nail. But Ja’far does. And Bray nails them. His solo portion at the back end of “Twisted” might as well be “No Good Deed” and he belt-blasts that clear over to the Conowingo Dam.
The entire show is pure nonsense. You’ll laugh until you cry. (Or pee if you don’t heed the “use the toilets pre-show” warning!) And it’s all Matthew Peterson’s fault. And his amazing cast. And those two or three others he named in the show’s program.
Just go see the damn thing already!
Running Time: 2 hours and 15 minutes with one intermission
Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier plays through February 17th 2024 at Street Lamp Community Theatre 5 Valley View Drive in Rising Sun, MD. For tickets call the box office at (410) 658-5088 or purchase them online.
