David Pittu
Bless You, Pittu! Peter Bartlett Swishes Through Campy Musical Spoof
Doug Hamilton
Bartlett and Pittu in What’s That Smell: The Music of Jacob Sterling, at Atlantic Stage 2.
David Pittu’s What’s That Smell: The Music of Jacob Sterling, at Atlantic Stage 2, is an affectionate, somewhat familiar, campy spoof about a perpetually aspiring Broadway composer who has no talent. It’s billed as a World Premiere. Small world, isn’t it?
Campy parodies of bad musicals are as current as the kitschy celebration of the third-rate in Xanadu, while long-forgotten musicals are frequently elevated to cult status by City Center’s Encores! series. The show queen’s scholarly delight in Broadway flops is the theme of the recent hit Broadway musical The Drowsy Chaperone (the sendup of a forgotten 1920s musical whose model was Sandy Wilson’s delightful 1954 pastiche The Boy Friend). read more »
