Golf: The Musical

A musical about Golf?  The idea is preposterous.  How could a show about the most boring sport known to man possibly be entertaining? What was I doing here?  Five essays due in less than four days!  As I was dragged into Baruch’s theater on east 25th street my mind was completely closed⎯too filled with thoughts of midterms and papers.  I never would have expected that a musical about Golf would pry my mind open.

Golf: The Musical makes good use of its four-member cast.  Each performer is vivacious and charismatic, and uses their characteristics to connect to and relate with the audience.  We felt their struggle as they dropped the punch lines of the more strained jokes, but laughed along with them at the more natural and relaxed ones. That is not to say that all the jokes were trite; for the most part the jokes were unpredictable and amusing.

Manning the stage was very difficult with such a small troupe, but the actors used it to their advantage.  As the audience became more familiar with the actors, the tension eased and the actors began to use more impromptu.  Aware of the more banal humor in their performance, the actors acknowledged their awareness and, by doing so, released their tension as well as our tension.  With the tension removed, it allowed for the audience to enjoy all of the jokes, good or bad.

I for one am grateful for their performance.  They put life into a sport that originally had none.  The musical opened my mind, emptied out the stress, and left me carefree and able to take on the next four days.