{"id":20918,"date":"2023-10-05T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-05T18:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/?p=20918"},"modified":"2024-03-02T21:16:01","modified_gmt":"2024-03-03T05:16:01","slug":"review-dicks-the-musical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/review-dicks-the-musical\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Dicks: The Musical<\/i>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What if Matt Stone and Trey Parker were gay and remade The Parent Trap<\/em> as a musical? And what if the idea of two super straight (wink) separated-at-birth identical twins (wink) who want to reunite their parents and definitely do not want to fuck each other (wink wink) wasn\u2019t bizarre enough so they add two little monsters named the Sewer Boys into the mix? The resulting film would look something like Dicks: The Musical<\/em>, the mutant brainchild of co-writers and stars Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp. It\u2019s possibly the most deranged movie of the last decade, which I mean as both a compliment and a warning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even by A24 standards, Dicks: The Musical<\/em> is weird, like screaming-\u201cWTF?!\u201d-while-giggling weird. You\u2019re looking at the person next to you and wondering if you\u2019re experiencing folie \u00e0 deux, especially whenever co-star Megan Mullaly opens her mouth and says the strangest thing you\u2019ve ever heard on screen. With Dicks: The Musical<\/em>, Borat<\/em>\u2019s Larry Charles has directed another film that is as likely to offend as it is to delight, and that\u2019s not just due to casting SNL<\/em>\u2019s Bowen Yang as a very queer version of God. It is probably best enjoyed while not entirely sober, but I don\u2019t know if my brain could handle the Sewer Boys in any sort of altered state. Yet if it is not your thing \u2014 either for its musical numbers, its absurd storyline, or because you\u2019re a homophobic bigot \u2014 I can\u2019t imagine a worse way for you to spend 86 minutes. (Though if it\u2019s the last case, it seems like fair punishment for being an asshole.) Dicks: The Musical<\/em>  is the type of movie that could be divisive for audiences, if its title weren\u2019t so clear about what to expect (other than the Sewer Boys). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on Jackson and Sharp\u2019s Upright Citizens Brigade stage play Fucking Identical Twins: The Musical<\/em>, Dicks: The Musical<\/em> introduces Craig Tiddle (Sharp) and Trevor Brock (Jackson) the top salesmen at the recently merged offices of Vroomba vacuum parts. They instantly hate each other when they meet, and they jockey for position as the top dog under boss Gloria (Megan Thee Stallion). People keep commenting about how much they look alike (they do not), and soon they discover that they share more than just a knack for selling vacuum parts, casual misogyny, and feelings of loneliness: they\u2019re actually identical twins. Craig and Trevor quickly shift their energies from their professional rivalry to reigniting their long-divorced parents\u2019 romance, but dear old mom Evelyn (Mullaly) and dad Harris (Nathan Lane) will not make it easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Somehow the two nightmare-inducing Sewer Boys \u2014 the ham-eating, diaper-wearing little weirdos kept by Harris in a cage \u2014 aren\u2019t even the oddest thing about Dicks: The Musical<\/em>. That honor goes to Mullaly, who is fully committed to playing an impossibly old, lisping lady who never leaves her overstuffed apartment. The actress has always displayed impeccable comic timing, but her talents are on full display in this wonderfully weird, perfectly profane role. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though Dicks: The Musical <\/em> takes an irreverent (to say the least) approach to the genre, Jackson and Sharp (along with composers Karl Saint Lucy and Marius de Vries) display a clear love for musicals. The songs aren\u2019t the most lyrically or vocally impressive, but they\u2019re still catchy, utterly hilarious, and a good fit for the over-the-top style of the movie. Sharp and Jackson\u2019s first number, \u201cI\u2019ll Always Be on Top,\u201d and Megan Thee Stallion\u2019s \u201cOut-Alpha the Alpha\u201d are the most likely to stay in viewers\u2019 now-broken brains after they\u2019ve left the theater, even if the latter isn\u2019t as witty or as much of a showcase for her talents as Megan Thee Stallion\u2019s own hits are. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sounds that I made while watching Dicks: The Musical <\/em>\u2014 alternately wheezing, choking, and snorting with laughter \u2014 were somehow even worse than the noises made by the Sewer Boys (one of who is voiced by Tom Kenny, aka Spongebob). The silly premise doesn\u2019t fully sustain itself for all 86 minutes, but it comes close, and redeems itself with the rare funny bloopers during the credits. Its schtick should be annoying after a few minutes, so Dicks: The Musical <\/em>sustaining that level of entertainment for over an hour is a filthy feat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

B+<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

“Dicks: The Musical” is in theaters Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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