Review: BROKE: THE GAME SHOW SHOW at The Westport Playhouse

This weekend BROKE: THE GAME SHOW SHOW opened at The Westport Playhouse. Created by Liz Mueller and CE Simon, BROKE is a show that is partially scripted, partially improv, partially musical comedy, and relies heavily on audience participation to drive the production. Audience members are asked to answer a series of zany questions to be brought on stage to vie for prizes by playing a variety of trivia and party games.

The producers of BROKE, have cast skilled improv comedian, Ryan Myers, to play game show host Hank. Myers is joined on stage by just one other cast member, Ashley Rube, playing Alex, the game show technician who runs the high-tech Virtual Artificial Neural Network Assistant, which is predictably 'broke.'

Unfortunately, there are a lot of things broke with this production. The scripted part of the show is banal. There are too few laughs. The two songs written, one for each act, are forgettable. In fact, the only memorable thing about the production value of BROKE was the bright kelly green blazer and bold pink tie worn by Myers.

Myers brings high energy to his role as Hank. He toils to find any laugh he can muster through improvisational comedy derived from the audience members participation. At last night's performance, he found a single funny bit thanks to a female audience member who mispronounced a biological term for genitalia. Myers and Rube milked that misspeak for about 6 genuine laughs from the audience. Ashley Rube has an underwritten role that adds little to the show. Her character Alex has a single function, fiddling with the computer that runs the technology for the show and apologizing to the host for the technical glitches.

Last night's audience was eager to go on-stage and participate in the party games (Trivia, Charades, Password, Hangman) that are the game show part of this production. Some of the audience members added a little energy to the show, but you never know what you're going to get when you pick random people to participate. One of the audience members struggled with the nonsense, Password-like, game that she was asked to play. She didn't respond well to the audience's reaction to her unsuccessful attempts and left the stage in a huff exclaiming, "I thought we were supposed to be having fun." Her attitude and reaction to her on-stage experience identifies the problems with BROKE: THE GAME SHOW SHOW. The show is not fun, amusing, or entertaining for the audience. The title of this show is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Everything about this production is broke.

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