When D'Arcy Drollinger first began writing Mr. Irresistible in 1998, he worked on a beige, gumdrop-shaped iMac that was basically a word processor. "And I think I had just gotten my first cell phone, which was as big as a brick," he said.
In that early version of the musical, the robot-as-boyfriend story was more about spoofing the 1950s notions of what the future might hold. "But as it progressed, I pushed it more into what's happening today," Drollinger said. "Even though the show can be very silly, there is a bit of a serious take on our dependence on technology, and creating something and not being able to stop it."
But back to the silly �" as well as the campy, the slapstick, the drag, the bawdy, and the gratuitous innuendoes. "I do have a certain sense of humor that is going to be in everything I do," said the writer-director-star of the recent cult hit Shit and Champagne. But besides having a title that any publication can print, Drollinger sees Mr. Irresistible as "the most commercial show I've done, and I think it's universal enough that it can go on to have a life after this run."
Mr. Irresistible will run for five performances only, June 4-8, but in the relatively spacious and underused Alcazar Theatre. (Tickets at mrirresistiblemusical.com). It's a pricey undertaking with its nine-member cast and four-piece band, not to mention a slew of special effects. And it wasn't even a show Drollinger expected to be resurrecting until the stars aligned in just the right way.
The quick story of the dusty script being pulled from the shelf began when ODC Theatre offered Drollinger an artistic residency, and a mention of Mr. Irresistible stoked interest from the theater. Drollinger tore apart his old script, tossed his musical score, and rebuilt it with composer Christopher Winslow. After readings at ODC, Drollinger pitched the musical to New York's La Mama Theatre, and a two-week workshop production ensued there. Then the San Francisco Arts Commission came through with a grant, and Alcazar Theatre operator Steve Dobbins joined in as a co-producer.
In the story, a socially awkward secretary named Eileen, bullied by her wicked stepsisters-like colleagues, orders a fully functioning mechanical male companion. She mistakes an exterminator as her custom-made robot, and is happy with her unwitting error until the real robot comes along and eventually refuses to shut down when Eileen decides she prefers the exterminator after all.
"It starts off with a boy-meets-girl, girl-meets-robot kind of thing, and then it turns into a bit of a horror-movie musical spoof," Drollinger said. "In the second act, it almost turns into an action thriller with lasers and explosions."
Cindy Goldfield, who played Eileen in the ODC and La Mama stagings, returns in that role, with Steven Shear (from the ODC edition) in the title role. Other familiar names in the cast include Joe Wicht (Trauma Flintstone) and J. Conrad Frank (Katya Smirnoff-Skyy). Jonathan J. Carpenter is the director.
Mr. Irresistible is the unusual Drollinger show that neither stars nor is directed by Drollinger. Shit and Champagne, Project: Lohan, and Scalpel! all followed the triple-threat model, but he decided the show would be better served with a new set of directorial eyes on the material, and with himself removed from onstage responsibilities he could see what jokes and lyrics might need fixing.
"It's been an interesting challenge," he said of his strictly offstage involvement, "to sell a show that I'm not in or directing. People are more likely to come see something I've got a bigger hand in."
Only a couple of years back from a long New York sojourn, Drollinger is in the enviable position of having established himself as a name brand. He'll be back on stage in July at the Victoria Theatre in a beefed-up production of Sex and the City episodes that have been part of a series of TV shows given a drag makeover at smaller venues.
Drollinger is also in demand as a dance instructor, so he's been able to support himself through creative activities. "My life in New York was in an office," he said, "so even when I'm exhausted at the end of the day, I still feel very lucky."
T-wrecks on the loose
From the folks who brought you Carrie: The Musical and Jerry Springer: The Opera now comes a musical about gender issues in a place very much like Jurassic Park. Ray of Light Theatre is presenting the local premiere of Triassic Parq, which was the big hit of the 2010 New York Fringe Festival. The all-dinosaur show runs May 29-June 28 at the Eureka Theatre. (Tickets at rayoflighttheatre.com.)
In the musical created by Marshall Pailet, Bryce Norbitz, and Steve Wargo, the genetically recreated theme park creatures face a crisis when a stray frog gene causes one of the females to turn into a male. The show includes power ballads, a hip-hop number, a Marx Brothers homage involving genitalia, and a Spring Awakening detour.
Alex Kirschner is directing Triassic Parq, the first of two musicals in Ray of Light's 2014 season. Coming in the fall to the Victoria Theatre is the West Coast premiere of another NY Fringe Fest graduate: Yeast Nation, a rock musical by the creators of Urinetown that is set in prehistoric times when the only living creatures on Earth are salt-eating yeast who discover love.