[title of show]

Last Christmas, I found a flyer at a bar. It got my attention immediately.

The flyer was for Tokyo International Players(TIP). It was founded in 1896 as a theatrical organization to reach out primarily to the Tokyo foreign community. They produce quality English-language entertainment for the community. Their productions include play, musical, and also has youth program.

So yesterday, I went to see their show for the first time while Tokyo suffered from heavy snow and I could not walk without getting buried in. (Well, at least for Tokyo, it was the heaviest in 45 years) Although I hated the weather, I am truly glad I made it. The show made me laugh so hard, touched my struggled feeling, and reminded my bitter sweet memory.

The title of show was [title of show].

And it was "two guys writing musical about two guys writing musical about two guys writing musical."
Yes, this sounds weird. The two guys, Jeff Bowen, the music composer and lyricist, and Hunter Bell, the author of book, are absolutely weird. And I mean it with lots of love and respect.

The story starts when two guys, Jeff and Hunter finds out about New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMTF) and the deadline is in three weeks. They want to submit something but has nothing ready. Then suddenly they got an idea: putting the exact struggle to write a musical into the musical.

As a post college-theatre-dork who suffered from vampire who used to live in Hell's Kitchen, NYC, (yes, these are the references from the show) their doubts and daydreams and believes were so real to me. And I guess it was the same to the judges of NYMTF. We all have vampires, which Susan's way to call our anxiety and complex, and that always bring us down. And those who have quite good career in theatre should have. That's why the show could moved up to Broadway and nominated to Tony Awards for the best book.

Although I totally agree that this show is great, I would watch this show in 99-seat theatre rather than gorgeous Broadway theatre. The performance by TIP was held at a small black box theatre with only four chairs and a keyboard on stage. There was nothing too fancy. And that's all needed. I loved the minimality since it felt like re-creating the actual life of starving artists. In addition, being so close to the actors made the line between stage and real world fuzzy, in addition to the same line within the musical.


I'd definitely follow TIP and maybe audition sometime. I am really glad I found them. My first show of the year was such a pleasure. What's next?