NoHo<LA : Cattle Call Deserves a Shout Out

Cattle Call
Deserves a Shout Out

By Michelle E. Malik
Imagine making a musical in less than ninety minutes. That's what the cast of Cattle Call, an improvised Broadway musical troupe aim to do, with a little help from their audience. Where else but Hollywood, albeit the northern part, could a physics major, for instance, become the director of his own production and then get to see it played out in under two hours? At the Bitter Truth Theater on Magnolia, the five-member ensemble consisting of Justin Bowler, Tracy Burns, Larry Cox, Kelly Holden, and Chris Vose brings a breath of fresh air into Friday night entertainment with their madcap imagination and highly animated interpretations of song titles named on the spot. What's more, goofy choreography is grafted from an audience member perhaps calling the shots for the first time ever.

From the get-go, you know this gang has spunk, taking a concept as wacky as "ass pimples" yes ass pimples and creating a whole authentic show wit scenes from the wiles of a fun-loving audience. The emcee John X. Heart, who resembles Clint Eastwood, go figure, dressed in a cool bowling shirt with the inevitable clipboard under his arm, addresses the audience as "musical theater luminaries." He calls on random people to name song titles and the apt troupe respond accordingly with a hilariously serious rendition of the named title with facial exaggerations straight out of a Willy Wonka fantasy. The scenes come complete with trippy music by the master keyboardist, Win Meyerson, who rises to the occasion, following wherever the troupe member wants to take his or her improvised ditty.

The beautiful thing about this crew of professionals is that they manage to glue together a coherent story line with a moral from a single idea, thanks to their own inventiveness and the direction of L.A. Theatresports umbrella. In the performance that I attended, we have the classic not-fitting-in, running away from home, coming back to resolve a problem on the home front and finding out who your real mom is theme. Filled with a lot of physical, maniacal exposition, you are sure to move with laughter in your seat more than once!