The Book of Rannells: Russian Broadway Shut Down (2014)

I saw this back when it first came out – loved it then, love it now.  Like Prop 8:  The Musical before it, it’s a short, lovingly-assembled, cameo-laden protest musical.  In this case, it was written around the time of the Sochi Olympics to protest Russia’s homophobic practices/policies.

After their straight-washing efforts are deemed insufficient for the squeamish government, Russia’s theatres are shut down.  The Russian theatre community, however, is determined not to go down without a fight, and they pull out all the stops for a one-night-only performance of pure musical-theatre dissent.

This short is both funny and biting, with the fake musical’s songs winking to the audience while still speaking the truth that LGBTQ folks can’t be erased from Russia’s past or present (as the kids point out in the Matilda-esque “from the mouths of babes” number near the end of the show, “Tchaikovsky was gay!”)  The songs range from a little silly to surprisingly good – I especially love all the lesbians standing up to the police – and there are all the Russia jokes, furry hats, and fake accents of varying dubiousness you could want.

The whole thing is packed to the gills with Broadway cameos.  Harvey Fierstein, Jonathan Groff, Jeremy Jordan, Patti LuPone, Stephen Schwartz, Stephanie J. Block, Laura Benanti, Jeff McCarthy, and Santino Fontana are just a few of the many, many Broiadway peeps playing LGBTQ Russian thespians.  A lot of them just fill in wherever needed, while others are present for some very intentional Broadway in-jokes.  I particularly like Victoria Clark singing, “We’re on vacation… permanently,” and the perfectly-timed cut to Michael Cerveris after another character wonders what musical-theatre actor could capture the raw masculinity of Vladimir Putin.

Andrew Rannells’s character is credited as Protagonist.  He’s not actually in the show-within-a-short but instead seems to be the one who spearheaded the musical.  He serves as our narrator for the short, popping up now and then with his furry hat and iffy accent to deliver exposition to the audience.  So, no singing (unfortunately!), but a decent number of lines.

Like most of the performers here, Rannells doesn’t have a ton to do, but it’s definitely more than the blink-and-you’ll-missed-it parts that some of his colleagues have.  I have no doubt that pretty much everyone appearing in the short is doing it out of personal conviction (along with the fun collaboration,) and I’m sure that holds true for Rannells as well.  And he has a few good bits – I like his delivery on, “Still too gay:  so we get closing notice!”, and he’s amusing calling his American “university lover” Dan Savage for advice.

Recommend?

In General – Definitely.  It’s a great little “eff you” to the Russian government’s homophobia, and it’s clear that everyone involved really wanted to make it.

Andrew Rannells – Strictly speaking, I wouldn’t say anyone’s part is big enough to recommend seeing it just for them.  Still, even though he doesn’t sing, Rannells’s part is bigger than most here, and a 12-minute short isn’t too much of an investment to make on his behalf.

Warnings

Thematic elements.