MouseMuse Productions, Fairfield County's premier producer of spoken word and musical comedy events, has your Saturday night covered.
The newest MouseMuse event, "Celebrity Hitched & Ditched," will premiere this Saturday, June 7, at 6:00 p.m., in the Leclerc Contemporary Gallery in the Fairfield Antiques and Design Center at 19 Willard Rd. in Norwalk.
MouseMuse founder Ina Chadwick and her comedic cohort Duncan Christy had seen a show called "Celebrity Autobiography" in New York, in which actors read from the often silly memoirs of celebrities. This gave Ina the idea of focusing a show on something celebrities seem to do very well: getting married and then getting divorced in entertainingly high-profile ways.
Clearly, there was no shortage of material. From Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin and their current "conscious uncoupling," to Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's recent wedding---how long will this one last?---to the serial marrying of such Hollywood legends as Elizabeth Taylor and Mickey Rooney who each took eight trips to the altar.
Ina credits her unique and experimental creative spirit to her childhood summers at a camp in the Berskshires where the focus was not only on athletics but on indulging the artist in children.
Says, Ina, "I was fortunate to have as a counselor renowned lyricist, Carole Bayer Sager, whose dossier of hits written or co-written include "Arthur's Theme," and "I'll Never Fall in Love again," and countless other memorable tunes.
On Saturday mornings a bunch of us, including Lesley and Michael Gore, would gather in the funky wooden theater and do some skits or try out some original numbers so we could compete in the Color War camp sing. And hopefully win.
I found the whole process thrilling, but never used it again except to write satirical humor articles for newspapers and parodies for family celebrations---until now."
Ina and her creative partner Duncan Christy have collaborated on a number of events, including "Live Magazine" spoken word performances at Cobbs Mill Inn and The West End Lounge in Manhattan, as well as the recent production of Duncan's original musical, "Magazine" at Theatre Artists Workshop. These two make a powerful pair, with Ina noting that "Duncan's ability to hear and see my vision and run with it has been for the most part, one of those most rewarding relationship benefits I've had, creatively. Plus we make each other laugh."
Ina explains. "Once I get a title in my head that clicks in on all levels, I'm not going to let it go. When Duncan and I click in together, a show is born. The theme song to "Celebrity Hitched & Ditched" is a Duncan Christy original. One of those tunes that gets under your skin in a second and you find yourself humming for days. He and I both have backgrounds in journalism and are basically news hounds. Current cultural ironies fascinate us. Politics are also our passion, but we give of our time in the community and lampoon only the unfathomable popular culture together.
To flesh out the show's musical component, Duncan went to work rewriting lyrics to familiar songs, because turning to the tried and true is always good way to put an entertaining show together. "Audiences already know the songs, or many of them, and so they can concentrate on what the songs are about: the parodies of behavior. For example, of those 16 marriages between them, the actors playing Taylor and Rooney sing 'We have sixteen, going on seventeen/ Spouses left in our wake/ Somehow we thought that married life ought/ To be like a wedding cake. . .' to the well-known song from 'The Sound of Music.'"
The resulting show is an hour of brilliant entertainment made up of 10 or more "Hitched & Ditched" segments. They're connected by bits of comic dialogue explaining the context and the principal players. It's light, funny and satirical. In addition to Chadwick and Christy, the show will feature local actors and performers, including Erica LuBonta, Josh Matteo, Maureen Hallock, and the excellent accompanist Jerold Goldstein.
Celebrity Hitched & Ditched
Saturday, June 7, 6:00 p.m.
Leclerc Contemporary Gallery/Fairfield Antiques and Design Center
19 Willard Rd., Norwalk, CT
Tickets are $20 and include wine and beverages
Guests may purchase tickets at the door or online at www.mousemuse.com
You can also check out MouseMuse on Facebook.