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Junk, A Rock Opera
I was pretty much horrified through the first few songs of Junk, A Rock Opera. I really wanted to punch someone. It's not that it was bad, but the context was driving me crazy. And I think that was the point: to make the 9-to-5 office world seem like a horrible place where the only excitement of the morning is your Starbucks (yes, there was a song about Starbucks).
Theatre should not be just about enjoyable giggles, laughs and good times (though we love that too), but it should make you think, it should anger you, it should engage discussion too. At the very least, Junk confirmed an office life is still not for me anymore. To that, Junk is genius.
Junk's music by Brainpool was well done, composed of catchy tunes you'll be humming after you leave. But I'm not promising you'll be able to understand all the lyrics, therefore the story line. Not the fault of the cast or crew, but the new Lyric Theatre, which is a great space and maybe incorrectly named, was not built for acoustics. Then again, I'm not much of a lyric guy on first listen. Yet, Avenue Q was easy to understand, so I'm going to blame it on the space.
LA Weekly gives it a GO, but LA.com said no. We say if you really like musical theatre, you'll probably dig this too (our audience was extremely enthusiastic through the whole thing).
Junk runs through September 30, Thurs - Sat @ 8pm. Special Sunday showings on September 16, 23 & 30 @ 7pm.
Junk, A Rock Opera
Lyric Theatre
520 North La Brea Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90036
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Photo courtesy of the production
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