Adam (Adam Parbhoo) listens to a message from the Jigsaw Killer in Saw the Musical, an “unauthorized parody” of the indie horror film of 2004.
Whether the 2004 low-budget horror film Saw has left enough of a cultural footprint on the public to warrant a musical parody is for audiences to decide. Saw the Musical, a send-up of the original Saw, with a book by Zoe Ann Jordan and music and lyrics by Patrick Spencer and Anthony De Angelis, certainly doesn’t provide any evidence of it.
“Some of the melodies are enjoyable, and the main theme pays homage to Charlie Clouser’s original score, but none of the music sticks around after one’s trip home.”
The original Saw follows Adam Stanheight and Lawrence Gordon, a photographer and an oncologist, respectively, after they wake up in a dilapidated bathroom, chained to steel pipes. They’ve been kidnapped by the Jigsaw Killer, whose modus operandi is to force his victims to win his “games” or die trying (and who, as in the original, uses a puppet to communicate with them). Those who are unfamiliar with the film’s plot will be just as confused as its biggest fans; the musical’s transforms the story into a gay romance between Lawrence and Adam that wasn’t in the movie, and it hits its beats without any real care for hitting them well. At a certain point, any resemblance to the source material seems purely coincidental, and any reference to it becomes detrimental to what the show wants to focus on. For example, each of the three performers in the show doubles in a role called “Pig Person.” Who exactly this Pig Person is the show never explains, not in the absurdist way but in the forgot-to-let-the-audience-in-on-the-joke type of way. The musical clearly wants to be a romp, but the changes hold it back, and its ambitions fall short.
There’s a lot of doubling in the show—Danny Durr plays Lawrence and Zep (a hospital orderly), Adam Parbhoo plays Adam and Diana (Lawrence’s daughter), and Gabrielle Goodman plays Jigsaw; Lawrence’s wife, Alison; and another one of Jigsaw’s victims, Amanda. (At the performance I saw, however, standby Morgan Traud took on Goodman’s roles).
Adam gets one step closer to winning Jigsaw’s game.
Parbhoo is almost always funny; what feel like improvised asides from him almost always land. Durr is sufficient, but he plays Lawrence pretty one-note by comparison—a loud, arrogant, over-masculine doctor. For Traud’s part, her slow-paced performance ground the show to a halt. Her lines were often unclear, and she pauses far too long between them. However, when she sings she is much more comfortable. She takes “Amanda’s Song” completely seriously and makes it a breath of fresh air, successfully lampooning the platitude-laden lyrics of contemporary musicals:
I’m taking center stage
I’m gonna turn the page
On every jerk who’s tried
To upstage me before
Now that I’ve found my light
I’m gonna hold on tight
And I’m not taking shit
From puppets anymore.
Sheridan Glover’s lighting is interesting and exciting—thin strips of light are fitting for the setting—but little is done with them besides that. On the opposite end is Ryan Gravett’s sound design; it is very poor throughout the show, and although it gets better as it goes on, at times watching without plugging one’s ears is unbearable.
As for the music, the juxtaposition of the show’s horror imagery with game show–style tunes is evocatively off-putting. In the grimy bathroom, the puppet and aforementioned Pig People sing:
Billy: Sit back and rest your feet
You’re in for quite the treat
You may just laugh until you cry tonight.
Pig People: And maybe see somebody die tonight.
Adam (Parbhoo) and Lawrence (Danny Durr) embrace, having grown more intimate after being trapped together.
Some of the melodies are enjoyable, and the main theme pays homage to Charlie Clouser’s original score, but none of the music sticks around after one’s trip home. Maybe some of it would have—Filthy Things, a number that Adam and Lawrence sing about their feelings for one another, is almost a showstopper—but the musical ideas never repeat. The show feels disjointed, and its orchestration gets old by the end, too; bass, drums, and piano chords can only be so interesting.
Like The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the show is raunchy. If a show is going to go for raunch, though, there’s got to be a point. Otherwise, audiences may walk away as unsure of the point as the show itself. In regards to the humor—the show’s full title is Saw the Musical: The Unauthorized Parody, after all—it’s full of slips of the tongue and silly voices. Sometimes that’s funny, but to just break into the macarena? A parody ought to make fun of its source material. This just makes fun to make fun, and for that reason it’s not very much fun at all.
Saw: The Musical runs through June 23 at the AMT Theatre (345 W. 45th St.). Evening performances are at 7:30 p.m. every Monday, starting Feb. 26. For tickets and more information, visit sawthemusical.com.
Book: Zoe Ann Jordan
Music & Lyrics: Patrick Spencer & Anthony De Angelis
Director and Choreographer: Stephanie Rosenberg
Sets: Sibling Sets
Lighting: Sheridan Glover
Sound Design: Ryan Gravett
