NYMF: The Brain from Planet X is Mindless Entertainment

Many movies and musicals have played with the conventions of hackneyed science fiction- The Rocky Horror Show, Little Shop of Horrors, Starmites, and Spaceballs, to name a few; the main problem with David Wechter and Bruce Kimmel's The Brain from Planet X is that it doesn't offer much that's new.

It bills itself as a "spoof" of 50s horror films, not a parody, which is perhaps appropriate- it doesn't dig deeper into its not-very-deep-to-begin-with source material than, say, a recent Saturday Night Live sketch, and the humor plateaus around that level, too.  Basically enjoyable, but toothless and bland.

Kimmel's music and lyrics are workmanlike and serviceable; they do what they need to do, but not much else.  The ballads are "Somewhere that's Green" without the irony. 

The plot: Brad and Janet Fred and Joyce Bunson (Rob Evan and Amy Bodnar) are a happy 1958 couple in the San Fernando Valley.  Fred's an inventor, and it's a running gag that Fred's inventions are all things we take for granted now.  Their sweet daughter Donna (an hilariously kittenish Merrill Grant) is having sex with her wannabe beat boyfriend Rod (Paul Downs Colaizzo).  Then Dark Helmet The Brain (Barry Pearl, "Doody" in the movie of Grease) comes to Earth from Planet X, with his servants Riff-Raff and Magenta Zubrick and Yoni* (Cason Murphy and Alet Taylor); their plan is to enslave the humans by making them intellectuals and thereby destroying the family unit.  The US Armed forces are deployed in the form of 1-star general General Mills (the Patton-esque Richard Pruitt) and his scene-stealing silent sidekick Private Partz (Chad Harlow, who is eloquent with his eyebrows and withering glares).  Everything happens the way you might expect, if you know the genre being lampooned and are familiar with the brand of shecky comedy (oh my goodness, one of the characters is actually gay?  Has an 11 o'clock number about liking men?**  And NOW he likes musical theatre!?  hiLARious!).

Just when I was thinking it wasn't that bad, they threw in some audience participation (Thank god my friend and I were judged "too gay" to participate).  A human was brought on stage from the audience and subjected to a mind-reading device, a "brain tap" which, (at first groan-inducingly) leads to a startling and unnecessarily fantastic precision tap number by the entire company (choreography by Adam Cates, who also made me giggle when he lifted some steps from Les Misèrables).

The cast is mainly too good for the material; standouts are Alet Taylor, who vamps like nobody's business as Yoni (though it's never explained why she stays in her leopard-print catsuit but loses her Magenta wig for a more sedate number in Act II),  and Merrill Grant as Donna, who clambers all over the stolid Paul Downs Colaizzo.  Chad Harlow is hilarious as the long-suffering Private Partz.  Erin Webley stands out from the ensemble with her totally committed facial expressions.

Poor Barry Pearl does his best in a costume that gives him no arms or peripheral vision. (the rest of the costumes, by Jessa-Raye Court, are excellent, firmly in the 1950s movie mold, though why 3 characters are wearing cardigans in early July is also never explained).

On the whole, it's an entertaining, silly show, which could benefit from some trimming (especially the intermission, which doesn't need to be there, and only wastes time reprising the forgettable theme song).  This might have been a hilarious Earth-shaking hit in 1975. 

* while it's an amusing and appropriate convention to name the sex-crazed, man-hungry alien after the Sanskrit word for "vulva", everyone on stage pronounces it "Yanni", which brings to mind more new-age music than the seat where love is throned.

** complete with TWO hunks in form-fitting gold lamé swim trunks (Joe Jackson and Steven Wenslawski (I think -they're only listed as ensemble)) - you only get ONE in Rocky Horror!

Photo: Cason Murphy and Alet Taylor