The Last Two People On Earth: An Apocalyptic Vaudeville

Musical (2015)

With Mandy Patinkin, Taylor Mac

What a fun, crazy and lively ride this is, starting in a rubber raft in which one of the two last survivors on earth, played by Taylor Mac, comes ashore and encounters his counterpart, played by Mandy Patinkin, through a happenstance of stolen apples. For the next eighty minutes or so they twist, they turn, they jostle, and mostly they sing their hearts out.

Everything in the musician’s Fake Book, and plenty more, gets added to the amazing roster of songs which fills the show. Sometimes performed whole, sometimes with pieces stitched together, the collection makes for an engaging musical collage. Many of the words are cleverly adapted: The Twelve Days of Christmas gets turned into a great drinking song, others are more specifically geared to the environmental theme. The music is pretty much constant; Patinkin and Mac barely seem to take a breath.

These two guys are each remarkable performers, and remarkable as a team. Clearly they love working with one another.

The premise of the show is apocalyptic, as the title asserts. The underlying story, such as it is, is simple: two hobos, at the end of the globally warmed world, sing and dance, which is why the clarifying term “vaudeville” in the title is useful. Don’t come to the show expecting narrative substance – come expecting a good time with plenty of excellent song and dnace and you won’t be disappointed.

The grim premise – the end of an overheated world – does not provide an introduction to what one normally thinks of as a fun night out, but in this case the combination of grim realism and fanciful play makes for a theatrical experience that both recognizes the stark realities of our increasingly tempestuous environment and our rising seas, and which provides a rollicking good time. Sing, dance and be merry, for tomorrow who knows what will come. Not advising irresponsibility, but awareness of the grim realities, is what the show is about, and does it in a way that pokes good fun. Not at all a Jeremiad, it is rather a moral tale told with a tickle meant to make us laugh, smile, then think.

To see these two endlessly engaging guys recounting the history of musical theater in one fell swoop as the world floods is both captivating and heartbreaking. The two remaining people on earth, they bring to their little desert island the treasure trove of the world’s entertainments to be sung, danced and then lost into the recesses of the cosmos.

The sweet throwback to Beckett’s portrayal of hobos facing metaphysical vacancy in Waiting for Godot (1953) takes on contemporary urgency in the threat of an earth made void by the fervor of irresponsible consumption. Like Beckett, who brought a good sense of fun to his hobos despite their plight, Patinkin, Mac, Stroman and company here bring a potent collage of fun and amusement to the characters facing environmental disaster.

Patinkin is not a kid anymore – he’s in his early sixties – Mac is a bit younger, in his early forties – and they give it their all. They have energy, they have moves and they have great voices. And they do it with gusto and wonderful collective spirit.

The staging and choreography by Susan Stroman are inventive and maintains interest throughout. Her touches are funny, often subtle but varied; it is impressive that she can keep things rolling along so well with just two actors. The music, directed by Paul Ford, is well crafted, edited and orchestrated, and it goes on almost constantly.

There is no dialogue in the show, and the sweat pouring from the two devoted actors gives an indication of the effort they put into the performance. They give it their all and the result is fun, sweet and compelling.

Perhaps these sweetly ironic jibes at environmental policy will be like the flapping of that proverbial butterfly’s wings which helps create significant causal changes in a place at great remove, maybe generating enough legislative energy to actually help reverse those dire trends amusingly but potently alluded to here.

– BADMan