DENVER — “Seal. Stamp. Send. Bang.” is a musical journey into metaphysical realms that explores how we’re all interconnected and how “everything that can happen will happen.”
Or maybe not. Maybe it’s a tale where kung fu moves, homemade egg logs, spontaneous combustion, bird poop, electric dog collars and a missing toe are stuffed together into a whimsical package, sealed, stamped and delivered to a synthesizer soundtrack.
Bang, that’s it. Leave the deep thoughts to Jack Handy — the endlessly inventive Buntport Theater Company’s first-ever musical is a tuneful blend of smart and silly. It also happens to be the 10-year-old Denver troupe’s 25th original piece — bravo! — and its first collaboration with composer Adam Stone.
Stone and the six Buntporters have come up with a zany story that revolves around the mail. It’s filled with lonely hearts, an oblivious do-right, a vengeful cousin and a sadistic postal inspector.
The set — four small home facades that pivot to reveal strikingly different interiors — nearly steals the show.
None in the Buntport cast are trained singers. So what? Each gives vocal performances worthy of the shower, and everyone sounds good there.
Seriously, what’s remarkable is that “Seal” isn’t parody. And it’s not really straight musical theater, either. With sincere deliveries and deliciously detailed comic characters, it’s coming at us from somewhere else, somewhere from the universe known as Buntport.
It’s in the details where “Seal” really shines. Evan Weissman’s nervous fingers checking his fly, Hannah Duggan’s hilarious dance routine from inside a sealed appliance-sized box, Erik Edborg’s jazz-hand gestures during a song about love, Brian Colonna’s eyebrow antics as he interrogates a hapless postal worker, Erin Rollman’s wide-eyed studied of a bird splatter she thinks is the shape of an angel — a sign from God.
Among the show’s remarkable appeal is the fact that it appeals to different generations. Like the generation that would reference Jack Handy in a review, and folks old enough to be their parents, and young enough to be their children. All those generations were present and laughing at last weekend’s opening performance.
As a whole, the show conjures up a great kind of spirit, the kind where the audience feels like it’s privy to something special. Some scenes, though, drag on a bit too long. “Seal” feels longer than its 70-minute running time, and could use a couple more songs in place of some meandering dialogue.
Stone’s prerecorded soundtrack is pure pop giddiness, a wash of drum beats and strings, all generated from a synthesizer and aching for you to sing along. His lyrics fit right in with Buntport’s off-kilter on-target humor.
This chorus, one man’s ode to the mailwoman who comes by his house, sets the tone early: “I know you’re fragile/I’d handle you with care/I’d package you with peanuts and bubble wrap your hair.”
Much later, a more philosophical theme arises when a man sings, “Everything that can happen will.” By then, so much unexpected has transpired, it’s easy to think “Seal” is Exhibit A in evidence of that theory.
—Mark Collins , March 5, 2009 , Daily Camera