FringeNYC 2013: Lollapacoacharoozastock Music Festival
It's the most famous bands you've never heard of! First performed at The Groundlings in Los Angeles, this rock concert spoofs the spectrum of pop music with original songs and characters. It's the only festival you can afford this year!
Official production websiteShow details/ticketing at FringeNYC
Review by Ed Malin · August 11, 2013
Lollapacoacharoozastock Music Festival is a spoof of music festivals, hair bands, arena rockers, and the like. There is something to enjoy here for those who want to laugh with (not at) the 80s, 90s, and today. Adam Blotner and Jenny Pinzari Blotner (and an outstanding assortment of wigs) have developed this show with The Groundlings Theatre in Los Angeles, and now bring it to FringeNYC. They are backed by the versatile band Positive Feedback: Matt Tobin on keyboard, Joe Hendrick on drums, Daniel Namm on electric guitar, and Danny Weller on bass.
The show starts with mock footage of the various types who line up to see the great Lollapacoacharoozastock music festival. All the front men/women are played by Adam Blotner and Jenny Pinzari Blotner, by the way, First are the latest silly teen idols Eli Porter and Destyn Reign. She has some kind of Disney show Hannah Montana thing going on; during the day she is a normal teenager, and at night she's a 40 year-old tax accountant. They sing about how they met and will be in love forever (until they go to college).
Next up is the tried-and true country act The Meadow Muffins. They croon "Y'know I think about you ev'ry time I see a Motel Six." Suddenly, mild-mannered keyboardist Matt Tobin is in front playing a hard country violin solo. It worked quite well.
Back to the heady days of 1996, we are introduced to the political-in-their-dreams post-grunge band Simon Never Said. In their interview, they reminisce about the cloning of the first sheep. If only someone had cloned Mother Teresa, they ponder, couldn't she have fed the hungry and helped the blind to see at the same time? This group, somewhere between Korn and The Barenaked Ladies, had Ms. Pinzari Blotner wearing a goatee stripe, a blond wig, and a ski hat. The more seriously they take themselves, the funnier they are.
The grand finale comes from "Plymyth Voyager", who are the band Journey but don't know it. They have great crowd-pleasing ballads. In the end, they play the chords for Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" but with different lyrics. The chorus is "We're Living on Dreams". The audience is invited to clap along and to visit the bar at the back of the space. It is a really fun time. Congratulations to director Phyliis Katz for keeping it fun and child-friendly as well as just plain amusing.
Preview: Interviews with Artists from Lollapacoacharoozastock Music Festival
We're asking artists from each show to answer questions about themselves and their work to help our readers get a detailed advance picture of the festival:
All About My Show · Adam Blotner (Writer)
- Complete this sentence: My show is the only one in FringeNYC that...?
is a rock concert! - What do you think this show is about? What will audiences take away with them after seeing it?
It's about the ridiculousness of pop music, and how much we hate to love it. Audiences will leave the show humming songs that sound rich in sincerity but in reality are about absolutely nothing. That is, if they are listening to the radio on their way home. - Why did you want to write this show?
I have so much fun developing characters, writing songs, and performing live music. I created "Lolla..." so I could do all of those things in one show. - Who are some of the people who helped you create this show, and what were their important contributions to the finished product?
My wife Jenny Pinzari Blotner has been my inspiration the whole way-- we love to laugh at pop music and to perform together. She is an incredibly gifted comedic and musical performer and I wanted to create material that we could both have fun with on stage. Director Phyllis Katz has been a mentor, a colleague, and a dear friend to me for years. All of the material in the show went through her fine-toothed comb before it made it to the stage. I am a minimalist, and she continually demands excellence from me. She wouldn't let me rhyme "light" and "guy." - Which character from a Shakespeare play would like your show the best: King Lear, Puck, Rosalind, or Lady Macbeth -- and why?
I think it would be King Lear, because he's the one that didn't pay attention enough in high school to remember who any of these people are.
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