Elections 2002: Local and National Coverage (Feature) North Carolina Shooting — Possibly Bias Related (in National News) Chinese American Group Pushes for Dismissal of Felony Charge in Juvenile Case (in Bay Area News) Ultimate Diversions: Inside the Twilight Zone (in Business) New Museum Pays Tribute to Japanese Sports Pioneers (in Sports) The Karaoke Story Creating Community (in A&E) Emil Amok: Hounded to Death: the FBI File of Filipino Author Carlos Bulosan (in Opinion)

Illustration By Jennie Sue

The Karaoke Story Creating Community

The Reverend, formerly known as Carlton A. Williams, has a certain unchristian weakness for married women, so he’s left the First Apostle Church to minister “All Night Long” to the crowds streaming into the Happy Twins Karaoke Lounge. Noah’s drinking away the anniversary of losing his wife and their twins when she ran off 30 years ago. He’s longing for “Yesterday.”

Enter club regulars, Roman and Anthony — they’re so “Hot in Here” they want to take their clothes off. When the audience calls for an encore, Roman and Anthony — or are they? — are “Under Pressure.” Andrea, Anthony’s wife, shows up with her sister because she wants to know where he hangs out all night, leaving her at home with her lonely love. Anthony (which one? your guess is as good as mine) doesn’t want her to cramp his style, to which she answers, “Hit Me with Your Best Shot.”

Confused yet? Who’s who? Who’s really in “The Love Shack” shaking it all up? And has Elvis come back as one of the Dragon Boys? Those two are certainly “All Shook Up.”

Welcome to Willy Shakespeare in the 21st century. Set in a Chelsea nightclub in New York City, this is The Karaoke Show: Willy’s Comedy of Errors, complete with errant twins, mistaken identity and a surprising family reunion. Not to mention a whole lot of swinging, contagious music. You can’t help but get involved — deeply involved …

Shakespeare in a Disco

From the team that morphed A Midsummer Night’s Dream into the long-running Donkey Show, now in its fourth fabulous year, comes the Bard’s first, slapstick play told in pop music, karaoke-style. “Karaoke is an absolute cultural phenomenon. It’s a public performative event. It’s a celebratory group experience,” says Diane Paulus, the show’s mega-award winning director and co-founder of Project 400. “Karaoke is about making a community out of the audience. And for me, that’s the prime mission for making theater. What are we doing but creating a community in this space? When the audience feels that, then I know we’ve done something right.”

For at least the last two decades, karaoke has been an international phenomenon. Most recently, Broadway and London’s West End are offering dressed-up versions of karaoke in a traditional musical theater setting: think Mamma Mia! with its Abba score playing on both sides of the Atlantic, or Movin’ Out, the new Billy Joel/Twyla Tharp collaboration now opening in New York, or even We Will Rock You, the Queen musical, or Taboo, the Boy George musical.

“But Karaoke Show is so different, because it’s actual karaoke,” Paulus insists. “We’re not in a theater, we’re in an actual disco. We use the karaoke as part of the story — the music is seen differently because it’s now part of the lens of the story, of the characters’ lives, so the karaoke experience becomes changed. The theater experience, too, is completely changed.”

Diane Paulus.

Paulus and her crew of brilliant cohorts who make up Project 400, together in co-production with Welly Yang’s Second Generation (2G), are all about redefining theater: forget the stuffy space filled with preening blue-heads wearing dead animals, think skin-tight, belly-baring young thangs with beautiful boy toys. “People say theater is dying,” says 2G’s Yang, founder and artistic director of New York’s youngest Asian Pacific American theater company, “when in fact, it’s thriving more than ever, in different forms: rock concerts, World Wrestling Federation, coffee houses, clubs, etc. What is dying, in fact, is the narrow type of theater defined by a small group of elites.”

There’s nothing elite about this talented crew of young performers, except maybe their amazing energy and jaw-dropping talent. Written by Randy Weiner, Paulus’ co-founder and partner, The Karaoke Show features Project 400’s spectacular usual suspects — Anna Wilson (as the Happy Twins’ own Dragon Lady, and the show’s costume designer too), Rachel Benbow Murdy (as the lonely, drink-swigging Noah), Jordin Ruderman (as the lovelorn Andrea) and Emily Hellstrom (as Andrea’s sister Lucille, who finds herself the object of at least one of the Anthonys’ affections). The four company members originated the cross-dressing icons of The Donkey Show and are fresh from the success of Swimming with Watermelons at the Vineyard Theatre last spring. Based on the love story that was the courtship of Paulus’ Japanese mother and white American father in Japan during the post-World War II U.S. occupation, Watermelons was Paulus’ first dramatic foray into her APA background.

Elvis-y Dragon Boys

From exploring the APA experience, Paulus goes utterly multicultural in The Karaoke Show. The rest of the cast includes Charles King (as the unholy Reverend Carl), Deborah S. Craig (as Carl’s sidekick Mustang Sally), Brian Nishii and Marc Santa Maria (as the Dragon Boys, who could not be more adorable), Brian Kuchta (as Anthony #1), Blair Trunzo (as Roman #1), Andy Breving (as unsuspecting Anthony #2), Dan Fogler (as unsuspecting Roman #2), Dominic Lim and Richard Ogawa (as the blonde, conically-busty Lolas) and Yoshi Amao (as Angelsan, who has the goods).

All together, they create one fabulous party. “It’s great to have such an ethnically diverse cast,” says Craig (Mustang Sally), who is Korean American. “Hopefully, that means we’ll bridge a diverse audience, as well. Besides, everyone loves karaoke.” Craig also notes how “amazing” it’s been to originate a role. “I’m experiencing a completely different aspect to being an Asian American actress by being this bold and brassy cowgirl with a southern accent.”

“Busting open stereotypes” is what Project 400’s work is all about, says Paulus. “We look at cultural phenomena and hope to explode them wide open.” Take the two Dragon Boys, for example. “We take the cliché of these dragon boys doing kung fu and make them the most humorous, most sexy, strong, kickass beings. We push through the stereotypes to something bigger and larger than such limiting characterizations.” Brian Nishii, one of the Dragon Boys, who is a hapa Japanese American, initially had “reservations” about taking the role. “But the process has been all about open dialogues,” he says. “We became these hip-hop, studly, Elvis-y guys. We’re still exploring the roles. They’ll probably continue to evolve over the next two months — and that’s going to be a fun process.”

Craig’s sidekick King (Reverend Carl), is African American and is making his New York debut. “I love working with all these different cultures,” he says. “It’s a really great group. We’re all ready to raise hell — and heaven,” he laughs.

Tia Carrere Sings Queen

The cast certainly had a taste of that heaven last week when The Karaoke Show sneak-peak-previewed at 2G’s Concert of Excellence, the group’s star-studded annual benefit. This year, Tia Carrere took to the stage with the cast in tow to perform “Bohemian Rhapsody” in a packed Carnegie Hall. “It was certainly a historic first: karaoke-ing at Carnegie Hall!” says 2G’s Yang. “The audience came away with the most amazing karaoke experience,” says Paulus. “It was a smashing success.” Yang adds, “And it began generating great buzz for the show.”

So for those of you who have yearned to be on stage, here’s your chance — the audience is all a part of the show. “This show literally asks the audience to sing along!” says Yang. “Theater is such an audience art form, and karaoke is perhaps the ultimate interactive theater we have today. I think my greatest hope for this show is that audiences will have lots of fun. It’s simply about getting people together in a room to party and karaoke. If that’s what they walk away with, the theater will never die.”

The Karaoke Show plays Tuesday nights at 8 p.m., some Wednesdays and late-night Thursdays, through December 17, at Club El Flamingo, 547 West 21st Street, New York City. Tickets are available from Smart Tix at 212-206-1515 or go to http://www.smarttix.com/index.cfm?showcode=KAR5&eventtype=Show. For more information, contact project400@hotmail.com.