One Evening Stand

An Overnight Musicals production. Created, directed by Elisabeth Sperling, Trish Dalton.With: Cheyenne Jackson, Rachel Dratch, Richard Kind, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Scarlett Strallen, Tamara Tunie, Theresa McCarthy, Alicia Witt, Tracie Thoms.Beginning on your own, a frazzled but gifted number of artists must write, cast, direct, rehearse and offer four 20-minute Broadway musicals in 24 hrs in "One Evening Stand," a documentary that perfectly conveys the creative madness unleashed along the way. Using split-screens and intercutting between your four different playlets each and every stage of development, helmers Elisabeth Sperling and Trish Dalton maintain nervous tension while revealing the quasi-miraculous procedure for building scripts, tunes and figures from nothing. This beautifully lensed, dynamically edited NewFest award champion could fit a metropolitan arthouse niche, and appears tailor-designed for PBS or cable. In an initial mass set up, the authors, composers, choreographers, company directors and stars all introduce themselves and deliver just a little show and talk about any knick knacks or odd objects they may have introduced along. The thesps included in this belt out a couple of bars to show their musical range. Four random types of authors and composers are then sent on choose a cast and brainstorm through the evening. Plots crystallize around tentatively pitched ideas inspired by props, real existence or even the hidden potential from the selected stars. The filmmakers monitor two musicals developing organically, gags and lyrics mounting up in separate bursts of inspiration. Another proceeds in fits and begins inside a loose sketch structure, but a 4th barely will get off the floor, leading to fears of non-completion. Sperling and Dalton unobtrusively deploy several cameras concurrently, cutting one of the teams without losing the thread or compromising momentum, even while juxtaposing contrasting styles and amounts of progress. In the finish from the lengthy evening, typed scripts and computer-recorded scores are passed out to become commited to memory, practiced and choreographed (and, within the final handful of hrs, blocked, lit and musically arranged onstage). Only at that juncture, the stars often dominate the proceedings, specially the inimitable Richard Kind, needed to commit to memory multiple pages of lyrics and dialogue. Kind stars in "Islands," in regards to a unsuccessful Ponzi schemer who, kicked out from his apartment, hopes for a brand new existence on Staten Island. Rachel Dratch's mounting anxiety, unmistakably authentic as she worries about needing to sing alongside genuine divas, becomes infectious as she head lines "Rachel Stated Sorry," in regards to a lady attempting to apologize for drunken remarks she made in a friend's prenuptial weekend. And also the whole cast of "Multiphobia," brought by Theresa McCarthy, turns obsessive-compulsive hands-cleaning into a skill. The main one playlet which has trouble stimulating, aside from some sexy moves by Scarlett Strallen, may be the Cheyenne Jackson-headed "Dr. Williams," featuring three surgeon siblings who all happen to be romantically entangled using their patient. The main one-evening-only performance offered like a fundraising event for that Exchange, which assists innovative British and American theater.Camera (color, HD), Mia Barker, Joshua Bee Alafia, Dalton, Ian Dudley, Luke Meyer, Hannah Rosenzweig, David Soll, Sperling, Alex Stikich, Joshua Z. Weinstein editors, Julie Janata, Karen Lynn Weinberg music, Paul Trubachik supervisory seem editor, Tom Efinger re-recording mixer/seem designer, Eric Gitelson. Examined on DVD, New You are able to, August. 8, 2011. (In NewFest.) Running time: 74 MIN. Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com