By David Gordon

June just doesn’t have enough money to pay her rent. The evil landlord is out to get her. It’s up to the handsome gentleman to save the day.

This is the basic plot of “The Musical of Musicals (the Musical!),” Eric Rockwell and Joanne Bogart’s 2003 musical, staged May 5 and 6 at the John Cranford Adams Playhouse by Hofstra’s Masquerade Musical Theater Company.

Sophomore Emily Miethner directs the production, which takes that basic through-line and transforms it into five mini-musical parodies, each one in the style of a different Broadway composer. Among those being sent-up are Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber.

The show, which has gained a substantial cult following in theater circles through the years, began as a production of Off-Broadway’s non-profit York Theater Company. The production, in 2003, became the longest running musical in their (then) 35 year history. It soon transferred to New World Stages, where the commercial production ran over 500 performances.

Miethner was one of the people who saw it during its Off-Broadway run. “It’s very different from most musicals,” she says. “It’s an extremely clever and witty parody that’s hilarious to everyone, not just theater buffs.”

Cast member Matt Landis agrees. “If you know anything about musical theater and even if you don’t, you’ll be on the floor laughing.”

The show proposal was passed by the members of Masquerade late last semester. It topped off a tumultuous time for the club, which was not allotted as much money for productions as it had been in previous years. This production caught the brunt of the budget restrictions, but no one involved let it get to them. The set and costumes were designed in hand-me-down mode. Set designers Ian Benjamin and Robert Burstzyn have “created something really simple made from leftover pieces from previous productions,” according to Miethner.

Two other difficulties they had to overcome were the location – the Playhouse as opposed to Masquerade’s previous home, the theater in Monroe Lecture Hall – and the cast size. The show is written for four people, but Miethner has cast 20. “It emphasizes the differences between each style and composer,” she says.

Alexandra Laks, who plays ‘Mother Abby’ in “Corn,” the segment based on the musicals of Rodgers and Hammerstein, agrees with Miethner, but feels that examples of the versatility of what would otherwise be a small group of actors has the ability to be lost with a large cast. “A lot of the humor is found when there are four people jumping back and forth, but it still works well with 20.” “It makes for less cohesiveness,” explains Lily Goodman, who stars in the Andrew Lloyd Webber parody “Aspects of Junita,” “but it’s still really funny.”

Danielle Thomas, who plays a character that combines iconic musical theater creations Sally Bowles and Roxie Hart in the segment spoofing John Kander & Fred Ebb, “thinks there is a reason why it was designed for four people – playing the same stock character in each segment,” but applauds, along with the rest of the cast, the fact that Miethner took a chance and cast sixteen more people. “It gave more people the opportunity to be cast in the show, which was really pretty awesome!”