Theater: St. Luke's Theatre / 308 West 46th St., New York, New York, 10036
Synopsis:
Disaster! is set on a summer night in Manhattan in 1979 and follows a group of NYC A-listers who party at the grand opening of a floating casino/disco—until disaster strikes. Earthquakes, tidal waves, infernos, killer bees, rats, sharks, and piranhas all threaten the guests, who sing some of the biggest hits of the ‘70s including “Hot Stuff,” “I Am Woman,” “Knock on Wood” and more.
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November 6, 2013: Those gloriously cheesy 1970s movies in which fistfuls of C-list celebrities face wholesale slaughter at the hands of unnatural acts of nature are lampooned in the new musical “Disaster!” at the St. Luke’s Theater.
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November 5, 2013: You can’t toss a stone in New York City without hitting a theater housing a project that is, in some way, a spoof of something else (Rock of Ages, Showgirls! the Musical, Bayside! the Musical). But when was the last time someone attempted a full-on lampoon of an entire movie subgenre? The disaster picture was ripe for parody even in its '70s heyday, with its all-star casts and hilariously overwrought parallel storylines set during earthquakes, airline mishaps, and crumbling buildings. The scribes behind Disaster!, a scrappy but irresistible new Off Broadway musical, wring this phenomenon for all its outrageous camp value with no shortage on gags and groans in the Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker mode. It's the perfect antidote to those lamenting the lack of Forbidden Broadway in their urban lives.
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November 4, 2013: I know what you’re thinking: Five stars seems grand for a campy, low-budget spoof of 1970s crisis flicks like The Poseidon Adventure and Airport. But I can’t remember the last time I laughed out loud at the theater as often as I did at Disaster!, a blissfully silly jukebox musical by Jack Plotnick (who also directs) and Seth Rudetsky (who stars as a scientist whose dire warnings of a boogie-triggered earthquake go unheeded).
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November 22, 2013: It seems like an iffy proposition at first: a musical spoof of 1970s disaster movies, using the soundtrack of that decade to fill out the score. Fortunately, Seth Rudetsky and Jack Plotnick's Disaster!, now at St. Luke's Theatre after a 2012 run at the Triad, is far from its title. Yes, it could be shorter, but this otherwise enjoyably frenzied evening boasts a fiercely committed cast, sharp book, and songs that will get stuck in your head for days — if they haven't already been there for four decades.
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November 22, 2013: Think Airplane! was the last word on 1970s disaster flicks? Well, er, it sort of was — at least on the big screen. But for stage mavens, there's a suitable jukebox-musical companion piece to be found in Disaster!, the giddy, dopey, and thoroughly winning new show by Seth Rudetsky and Jack Plotnick at St. Luke's Theater.
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