I've Never Been So Happy at the Off Center [Theatre Review]
It’s not every show that lets you dress like a cowboy (complete with fake six-shooter), use a bow and arrow, and drink pomegranate margaritas. You can do it before I’ve Never Been So Happy begins, though, and don't be surprised if walking into the Off Center feels a bit like joining up with a traveling Buffalo Bill Wild West Revue. The actors, dressed like Justin Boots employees, improvise a dance based on cues typed on the other side of the room by an audience member who's watching a painter, who in turn is following the movements of a remote-controlled truck that's spinning around on a transparent board overhead. It’s all a gleefully playful participatory precursor to the main event—twisted scenes from a work-in-progress western musical about a couple of wiener dogs, their father-and-daughter owners, and a guy whose mom tied him to a bobcat as a child to make sure he’d grow up tough. It's a Keep Austin Weird story with enough Texas boot-stomping to satisfy city slicker audiences expecting a little roughage when it eventually travels to bigger theatrical arenas around the country.
The show draws its strength from a dramatic score soaring with a chorus line of stringed instruments and four part vocal harmonies that feel equal parts Oklahoma!, Three Dog Night, and soundtracks from classic Disney movies. The cast sing, dance and tell jokes (like the one about a cowboy’s rope being too short) while people behind a screen successfully manage to turn shadow puppetry into a remarkably colorful form of storytelling expression. The work nails its emotions, turning over-the-top character explorations into a Texas two-step choreography of over-stimulation and joy.
While the feelings are there, however, it would be challenging to retell the story, as the plot connections are thinner than tempers in an East Texas August. The performance is, admittedly, still in workshop mode, and the Mechanicals do point out that that the audience is witnessing a story structure under construction. Some of the jumps are so great, though, that it is unclear whether the writers themselves know what actually happens between the scenes we get to see. And with all of the pre-show dress up and upside down carnival games, the production misses an opportunity to involve a loosened-up audience a little more in its wacky western charades. When the musical ended without any opportunity for participation, it felt a little anti-climactic to have a toy six-shooter stuffed down our pants without the chance to use it.
Even if it does feel a little distanced from its audience, the end result is a multi-sensory experience that entertains enough to suspend the need for a fleshed-out storyboard. It’s a fresh work, and when I’ve Never Been So Happy matures into its final draft, Austin will have something it can be proud to call its own.
