Dunder Mifflin Scranton came to the Count Basie Center for the Arts for The Office! A Musical Parody on Sunday, Oct. 20.
The actors who played Andy, Angela, Phyllis, Meredith, and Toby nailed their characters, while the other workers of Dunder Mifflin cut the entire production short. Michael, Oscar, Ryan and Kevin were all played by women. I’m all for strong female leads, but these gender changes didn’t feel right.
Michael’s character was too obnoxious and overexaggerated, completely missing the lovable charm that we’ve come to admire in the sitcom. Every time Michael’s character spoke, I couldn’t help but pull a Jim and look into the imaginary camera to my left.
Speaking of Jim, the actor who played him reminded me much more of Pete (Plop) Miller, who first appeared in season 9 of the series. Not to mention, the parody failed to include Darryl and his sarcastic remarks, as well as Stanley and his crossword puzzles.
The musical seemed more like a contest of how many Office references they could fit in a three-hour show. It made references to “Dinner Party,” the Scranton Strangler, “Threat Level Midnight,” Kevin’s famous chili, the iconic stapler-in-jello prank, the Party Planning Committee, Sprinkles the cat, and of course the Dundies among many more.
The funniest part of the parody was the abundance of fourth wall breaks, including the characters referring to Kelly as Mindy Kaling, her real-life actress. But the best fourth wall breaks appeared in Karen Filippelli’s dialogue, in her overexaggerated Italian accent, “I’m just here to make conflict between Jim and Pam,” and, once TV’s favorite couple got together, “My job here is done, I’m off to be in Parks and Rec now.”
Most of the Dunder Mifflin employees could have been played better, but overall, the parody paid a nice homage to America’s favorite fictional workplace.
But, truth be told, I would have much rather re-watched a few episodes of the real thing on Netflix as a way to spend my Sunday night.
IMAGE TAKEN from twitter.com
