By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 4 cats
Director: Elisabeth Sperling | Trish Dalton
Country: united_states
Year: 2011
Running time: 74
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1726707/
Bruce says: “ONE NIGHT STAND is a documentary tracking four creative teams as they each labor to create a fifteen minute musical in twenty-four hours. The activities begin at 8:00pm and at 8:00 the following night the curtain rises. The performance is an annual charity event. The participants have been preselected. Each musical has a composer, lyricist, writer, director, choreographer, and actors.
“The composers, lyricists, and writers are first divided into four teams by chance drawing. The actors all arrive with a prop or costume of their own choosing. It will be incorporated in the show. Then the creative team selects actors in a round robin selection process. As one participant put it, ‘I’m excited and terrified. It is sort of like sex.’
“The creative teams have until 6:00am to write the show and develop a score; then it is turned over to the director, actors and choreographer who turn the work on paper into a live show. The film darts from team to team as plots emerge and songs take shape. One musical is about phobias (based on The Pop-up Book of Phobias which one person brought as a prop); a second entitled ‘Rachel Said Sorry’ is about bridesmaid trauma; a third is about a man who has lost his job in Manhattan and is about to be homeless; the fourth is about three brothers, all surgeons, who are about to operate on a woman with whom each has been involved to one degree or another.
“Rehearsals are chaotic as final touches are added to staging, lyrics, and choreography while the actors are trying to nail things down. One actor groaned, ‘This is taking me back to acting class.’ At the beginning it appears that Lance Horn is off to the best start. His music flows but the concept of the bridesmaid trauma does not lend itself to a cohesive piece. His team picks Rachel Dratch who, based on her Saturday Night Live experience, one would expect to be great in an improvisational environment. She, however, further complicates the issue by not being sure of her character. The phobias work much better as a concept in spite of the creative team having initial difficulties; Nellie McKay and the other actors bring the piece alive. The homeless man (Richard Kind) is a strong lead character but he has trouble memorizing his songs. The brother surgeons are excellent thanks to the professionalism of Cheyenne Jackson who shines like no other performer. During the performance Jesse Tyler Ferguson goes up on his lines and seems to think it is funny, not something one would expect from a performer of his caliber.
“The one weakness of the film is that the viewer does not get to see more of the finished products; with a running time of just over an hour that should have been possible. The main strength of ONE NIGHT STAND is the ability of the film to capture the ups and downs of the creative process. We see the mini triumphs and failures that occur everywhere along the way. We also learn that jumping to conclusions about the final product is never a good idea. Some of the best laid plans go awry and many wonderful surprises come from out of the blue. ONE NIGHT STAND is a must see for anyone who loves theatre and musicals. 4 1/2 cats ”
Chris says: “‘The 24 Hour Musical’ is an annual New York City charitable event in which four teams of esteemed writers, composers, directors and actors have one full day to create and perform their own fifteen-minute musicals. As a look into how the creative process works under extreme pressure and time constraints, ONE NIGHT STAND doesn’t offer much insight beyond the stressed-filled melee of having to come up with something, anything on the spot. The film is more of a (pretty good) excuse to showcase a bounty of talent in action, from stage veterans (Richard Kind) to current popular Broadway fixtures (Cheyenne Jackson, award-winning composer Lance Horn) to stage/screen/recording artist hybrids (Modern Family’s Jesse Tyler Ferguson, kooky-as-one-could-wish-for-chanteuse Nellie McKay) and ringers such as ex-SNL cast member Rachel Dratch.
“Well-structured and crisply edited, the film pertinently guides us through the middle of night (where the writers and composers strain to make their deadlines) through the following morning and afternoon (where the directors and actors have to learn and perfect the material) into the evening, where the finished mini-musicals are performed for an audience. The ensuing deadline ensures a quick-on-the-draw pace, although your enjoyment of it will depend on how much you like watching people rehearse. It helps to have some developing character arcs such as Dratch’s. Although not much of a singer (by her own admission), she’s given an important song to be sung straight and her struggle to find enough confidence to pull off something outside her wheelhouse is far more involving than watching a more seasoned musical performer like Jackson trying to learn his lines.
“At the conclusion, the fruits of all this labor are on display. As they had throughout the film, co-directors Elisabeth Sperling and Trish Dalton continue to cut back-and-forth between the four teams. Although practicality prevents showing the entirety of all four mini-musicals, seeing highlights of each separately rather than mixing them all up might have given viewers a more complete sense of each work. The mini-productions themselves aren’t going to win any Tonys, but each contains dedicated performances, an egregious mistake or two and a few small triumphs (Dratch pulls off her song passably well). ONE NIGHT STAND is probably not going to win any awards, either, but for musical fans it’s a pleasant, entertaining digression. 3.5 cats
“(This film screened at the 2012 Independent Film Festival of Boston)”