Ur doin it quite well, akshully.

Oh noes!  Teh internets are holding kittehs captive while their pictures are downloaded onto a silly website with ridiculous, misspelled, grammatically incorrect captions over their heads!!  Or at least that’s the theory in the highly entertaining musical, “I Can Has Cheezburger: The MusicLOL”.  This show, which feels like children's theater for adults, is featured as part of The New York International Fringe Festival 2009.  It is directed by Karina Bennett with the book, music and lyrics by Kristyn Pomranz and Katherine Steinberg.  What can I say?  These are my kind of women.

Inspired by ICanHasCheezburger.com, this show is one of the most absurd, off-the-wall, bizarre, messed up pieces of theater I’ve ever seen.  It is many levels of wrong and I loved every second of it.  Sure, it needs work in places but what new work doesn’t?  One particular musical number went on a little too long and considering the plethora of internet inside jokes the website ICanHasCheezburger.com has helped to create, there are even more themes that could be included…but I admit I was getting ahead of myself with ideas, being both a theater person as well as a big fan of ICHCB.  This show currently borders on chaotic, so perhaps it’s best left the way it is.  The use of media helps as most of the “set” is projected onto a screen along with a variety of LOLcats that move the story along.  I enjoyed the actor’s performances immensely.   This material is extremely delicate, as is any absurdist piece, and the cast has the imagination it takes to make a story such as this come to life.  They strike a balance between taking the story seriously and not too seriously.  This is no easy task. 

One could argue that LOLcats are simple, lowbrow entertainment.  But the genius in disguise is found in how they’ve been keeping people like me sane at work for over two years now.  I take cute breaks several times a day at the office with ICHCB.com and Cuteoverload.com.  These sites provide a short-but-sweet respite throughout the day for many a worker all over the world, hence their incredible popularity.  If someone has never been to the website ICanHasCheezburger.com and goes to see this show, they won’t be too horribly lost after the first few minutes.  The internet phenomenon of LOLcats is an acquired taste but once you catch on, the logic (or lack thereof) and humor behind it all soon falls into place.  That being said, this show is riddled with inside jokes shared by fans of ICHCB.com and that, coupled with the simplicity of LOLcats, is what makes this show work - it charms both LOL virgins with a sense of humor as well as die-hard fans of the site who have been following it since the beginning (like me).   

The silly romp takes you on an adventure in the ever expanding world of the internet.  An LOLcat (aka “Happy Cat” – though that’s not his name in the musical for some reason) gets downloaded onto the cheezburger site after he adorably makes a play for his owner’s cheeseburger in real life.  Finding himself lost in the internet, he’s now on a quest to find his cheezburger, his one true love.  He runs into familiar faces for us ICHCB fans including LOLrus who lost his bukkit, Drop the cat who hides in a box waiting for the cheezburgers to drop, Epic Win and Epic FAIL, the owl who cries *head tilt* O RLY?, a kitteh who adds up all the sumz for buying moar cheezburgers and last but not least, Mr. Wrong, a kitteh with a slice of cheese on his head who was once told “Cheez - You’re doin’ it WRONG” in his caption as a kitten and never recovered, thus leading him to cause evil mischief for all eternity.  (I have to say here that Clint Carter’s performance as Mr. Wrong is brilliant.)  In the land of teh internets, “Jodie’s” is where you go for cheezburgers.  Jodie is a mouse with a slick business sense and a strong desire to find love.  You know, “Just someone to eat cheese with” as the adorable musical number goes.  When LOLcat stumbles onto Jodie’s corporate headquarters he learns that he’s in the wrong place for the actual cheezburgers.  Thanks to the confusion caused by “sumz”, Jodie’s piss poor accountant who cannot tell him how much monies he will need for the cheezburgers, LOLcat finds himself lost once again.  He falls into the evil paws of Mr. Wrong who convinces him that “Jodie’s” discriminates against cats and that in order to get cheezburgers he ought to mousenap her and demand equal accessibility to cheezburgers for cats...or something like that.  (Are you following me?  Because I’m not.)  As expected the plan goes horribly wrong when LOLcat discovers that he has a forbidden love for Jodie the mouse and cannot bring himself to sacrifice her dignity and freedom for the cause…or will he? 

Find out, if you can, by seeing the show Wednesday August 26^th at 9:15 PM or Friday August 28^th at 4:45 PM at The Cherry Lane Theater.  Buy your ticket online in advance as these shows will sell out.  Even if they don’t win at Fringe, I smell a future run of some kind for this play.  Go to fringenyc.org for more details!!  KTHNXBAI!!!!

Stupid walrus

Theatur Cat by Jaypo (THNX J!)

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