Most of us got to know the hit musical DEAR EVAN HANSEN through listening to the Broadway cast album and marvelling at the soaring vocals of Ben Platt who originated the lead role.
If you’ve been watching him play the central character in Netflix, THE POLITICIAN, you’ll also know he has a talent for deadpan comedy.
Last week he revealed a new string to his bow with the release on YouTube of a very funny comedy pilot which he stars in and co-created.
It’s a mock documentary set in a struggling drama school and about a bunch of insecure, territorial misfits teaching theatre classes to kids.
In the first half they’re revealed in all their ghastly pretentiousness as they big up what little talent they have to try to inspire a bunch of baffled young students. Their dodgy qualifications flash up on the screen as the “documentary” eaves drops on their awful classes which seem to be more about them working through their own inadequacies by brow beating the kids than nurturing young talent.
With the characters established it’s then revealed that one of them must lose their job due to the cuts and a mild mannered management consultant must decide who’s to go. His quiet down to earth pragmatism is a delicious contrast with the highly strung teachers that he encounters.
Having worked in these environments I can assure you that there are plenty of fine teachers in this field but the depiction of the desperate odd-balls clinging to their jobs in theatre training is also painfully, hilariously, accurate.
But their failings and shortcomings are so blatant that you’ll still find it funny if you’ve never been in a theatre class.
It’s also very cleverly constructed. Within the brief time frame it clearly establishes a bunch of characters you want to follow, tips them into a crisis, and then has them resolve it leading to an unexpected climax.
It’s also a scathing critique of the way some of the best teachers can get trampled by the ruthlessness of their less gifted but more manipulative colleagues.
It’s an absolute must-watch for anyone who’s taught theatre, studied in such classes, and for theatregoers curious to know more about the actors life.
The enforced isolation of most of the performers on the planet isn’t stopping them making music together and one of the few lovely things to have come out the Corona crisis is the rise of the “virtual choir” phenomenon. Unable to meet in person each member of a choir contributes via a video link from their self-isolation.