'Khan!!! The Musical' Review: A Raucously Fun Time For Star Trek Fanatics
Greg Ehrhardt, OnStage Blog Editorial Staff
‘Khan!!! The Musical’ opened at Players Theatre in New York City on Thursday, May 4th (ironically, on Star Wars Day), and, as a Trekkie, specifically the Original Cast Movie Trekkie, there couldn’t be a musical more tailor-made for me. I don’t review many shows for OnStage Blog. Still, when a parody musical based on one of my top 10 favorite movies of all time, especially with the title featuring one of my top 5 favorite movie villains of all time, is on off-Broadway, well, I was going to review this show come hell or high water.
I spoke with the creator and composer of the musical, Brent Black, before the show premier, and he told me his goal was to make the show appeal to Trekkies and people who never saw a single second of Star Trek movies or tv shows.
Did it succeed on either front? We’ll get to that.
First, here’s what you need to know about the show itself:
1) While it is a parody, it is a pretty faithful retelling of “Wrath of Khan”
a. Many movie parodies take liberties with the story in their adaptations. Not ‘Khan!!! The Musical’. It pretty much follows the beats of the movie step for step. This is not to suggest it doesn’t take any liberties; after all, we are seeing a creation of Data’s campy adaptation of the story of Wrath of Khan. For example, Dr. McCoy is way more profane in this movie than in the film, but it all plays effectively for laughs, as one might imagine.
b. There is one significant deviation from the fundamental story structure in the 2nd act (it involved new lifeforms on the planet Genesis that the crew discovers; I won’t spoil beyond that, and it is hilarious), and a bit of a twist of how the final battle in the Mutara Nebula plays out, but otherwise, the story plays out how you know it plays out, albeit in amusing ways, with some extra meta dialogue about Star Trek itself.
2) Data, the lovable Android from The Next Generation cast, is prominently involved throughout the play, more so than the synopsis suggests.
a. While it was evident in the synopsis on the website that this adaptation of the story of Wrath of Khan would be Data’s recreation playing out on stage as a simulation, Data acts as not just the narrator of the musical, but also “plays” certain characters in the story. I will get to the actual performance of Data later, but I’ll say, if you love Data, you will like “Khan!!! The Musical”
3) There is a bit of a range in how closely the actors imitate the movie/tv show counterparts they are parodying.
a. Kirk, Sulu, McCoy, and Scotty are played faithfully to the movie source material. Kirk, in particular, is played very well by Shyaporn Theerakulstit. There have been hundreds of Shatner parodies over the years, and he got Shatner’s voice inflections and timing down better (and more naturally) than almost any imitation I have seen.
b. Spock was interesting in that the character seemed to be channeling the Zachary Quinto version of Spock vs. the Leonard Nimoy Spock, playing more to dry humor and sarcasm that the Quinto Spock was known for vs. the gentle wisdom and completely dead-pan delivery that Nimoy’s Spock was famous for. For this musical parody, I think it was the right choice. (Chekov also seemed to be based on the Anton Yelchin version vs. the Walter Koenig version purely based on how I heard his voice inflections being used, though other Trekkies may disagree.)
c. Saavik and Uhura were portrayed 100% dissimilarly to their Wrath of Khan counterparts, but both with good reason.
Saavik was played with more emotion than anything we saw in the original Star Trek movies; in this parody, Saavik was half Vulcan/half Ingenue raised on the planet Soprano, which allowed her character to emote and sing/dance enthusiastically.
Uhura was played sassier than ever in any star trek adaptation, but surgically so, as all of it was played very effectively (and not overdone) for big laughs.
d. In short, there were distinct choices made for each character, and I think it all worked.
So, the big questions are, did this musical work for Trekkies, and did this work for non-Trekkies?
Trekkies
I can safely say that Trekkies will love this musical. This show loves the source material, poking fun in a way that Trekkies can get behind, like exposing funny plot holes of Wrath of Khan and laughing at the exaggerated character quirks (especially from Kirk) that Trekkies adore about their beloved characters.
The song lyrics are clever, expertly weaving in crucial and iconic lines of dialogue from the movie while making many (and I mean many) inside jokes and easter egg references that only Trekkies will get. The characters are played faithfully, yet absurdly, so the audience can laugh with the characters instead of at them, with the songs and dialogue making sure only to tease and not deride the characters (or their fans).
The audience I watched this with (many of whom came dressed in star trek gear, with some coming in full Star Trek Wrath of Khan costumes) laughed so hard at some of the jokes that it made it hard for me to hear the end of the line deliveries. I heard one woman say earnestly at the end of the performance that she was laughing so hard she was almost choking.
I laughed hard only once (it was at a joke towards the end when Spock makes an “I’m a doctor, not a (blank)” joke at McCoy, but I’m also hard to make laugh at a performance. Regardless, I was smiling ear to ear during most of the undertaking, and I imagine that will be the case for all Trekkies because this play was clearly written for us.
But what about non-Trekkies?
I don’t think this show will work if you don’t know the Star Trek movies or the original series shows. I was told they worked hard to make this appeal to complete novices of the Star Trek world, but, if I had to guess, more than half of the jokes are going to go way over the head of Star Trek newbies, which means you need stellar music and dancing to make it work for the non-fans.
Was the music great without knowing the lyrical references to Star Trek? The songs are traditional Broadway fare (since that was Data’s purpose), all sounding familiar to even a Broadway novice. A couple of songs have obvious comps to popular Broadway show diddies. There are some very clever songs, particularly ‘Battleship’ (Kirk and Khan play the board game Battleship to music while in the Mutara Nebula), and ‘Have I Still Got The Magic’, which occurs during the first ship battle involving the prefix code.
I wasn’t bored with any of the songs (background: I get bored quickly during at least some songs for almost every musical), so that’s a huge compliment from me. But I think the only song I would download on Spotify immediately would be “Battleship.”
That said, there aren’t any songs I’d skip if I played the entire soundtrack on my phone months from now. It’s a good soundtrack but not an addicting one, if that makes sense.
As far as the dancing goes, it’s pretty basic and not well synchronized. This won’t matter to Trekkies, and it didn’t matter to me, but to non-Trekkies checking it out, it may matter to them.
Bottom line: the music is good, but I don’t know if it’s enough to appeal to Star Trek newbies by itself, especially without knowing much of the lyrical references to Star Trek.
Standout Performances
I must start with Data, played by Julian Manjerico. I’ll be blunt; he can have a big future on Broadway if he wants it. He has some comedic gifts on stage as a physical actor, but he is also an imposing actor as Data in a friendly way. Data interacts with the audience during the show (I won’t spoil how). The actor must have enough stage presence to hold the audience’s attention and manipulate it into laughs, which Manjerico did brilliantly.
Data also plays Joaquin, David Marcus (Kirk’s son), and Peter Preston (Scotty’s nephew) very, very different than how he plays Data, and yet, he represents the entire spectrum of personalities dynamically. I was excited every time Data came back on stage because of how well he represented the character, even with his eye movements. Dare I say it; he reminded me of how the great Bill Hader would have acted as Data/David/Joaquim/Peter?
I’m looking forward to Manjerico’s Broadway future.
I was also impressed with the portrayal of Spock, played by Max Nusbaum. The character (much like the Spock played by Nimoy) never broke a smile in any second he was on stage (this was not the case with Saavik, nor was she intended to be a character that didn’t emote).
I wondered if they would play Spock absurdly (like some other parodies), but this speaks to the characters being faithful to their source material, which Trekkies will love. Also, while Spock sings during various songs in the musical, he breaks out in an impressive mini-operatic piece briefly towards the end, making me go “woah,” not knowing he had that in him.
It’s a good Spock performance that everyone should enjoy.
Crystal Marie Stewart was my last standout, playing a sassy Uhura and Carol Marcus to significant effect. She had the funniest line delivery of the show, wondering why a particular Star Trek character didn’t visit Sick Bay with an individual dying in his arms, which brought the house down in fits.
Quibbles
I’m being picky, but I don’t think the parody depiction of McCoy was the best it could be. Lindsey M.E. Newton played both McCoy and Scotty, with Scotty being portrayed very comically with a delightfully exaggerated Scottish accent. I think Newton should have dialed up the absurdity of McCoy’s quirks another 20% or so. McCoy was played close to the source material but in a safe way. McCoy is a straightforward character to parody, as Karl Urban demonstrated in the J.J. Abrams movies, and exaggerating his mannerisms is easy fodder for any actor.
Newton had some good line deliveries, but McCoy is a crucial character to Star Trek, and you must hit the bullseye like you would for Kirk and Spock; I don’t think it was quite done the best way it could have for a musical parody.
Also in talking about quibbles, amazingly, I haven’t even mentioned Khan, played by Zachary Kropp. As I told Brent Black during my interview, I was most nervous about the portrayal of Khan, considering (in my mind) iconic doesn’t begin to describe Ricardo Montalban’s performance. Brent Black told me that Khan’s stage portrayal would be inspired by Frank N Furter from Rocky Horror Picture Show, and I can confirm that character is most certainly who he was channeling.
Frank N Furter isn’t a vast departure from what you would consider the average parody depiction of Khan. Still, Zachary Kropp didn’t play to Montalban’s vocal ticks or Khan’s penchant for being over-the-top dramatic the way I would hope, considering most of the other characters were faithful to the movie source material and not channeling characters from other popular Broadway musicals.
These are quibbles, not criticisms. These two characters will not detract from a Trekkie’s enjoyment of the musical. But, I suspect, they will be noticed by a picky Trekkie fan (like myself)
In summary
If you’re a Trekkie, see this musical, and see it soon because you probably won’t ever laugh as hard as you will watching this, and I bet you’ll want to see it multiple times.
If you’re not a Trekkie, but if you’re familiar with the Star Trek characters, as long as you see Wrath of Khan before the show (and you should, it’s a legitimately good and fun movie for everyone), you should have a good time.
If you know nothing about Star Trek, this might not be the show for you.
I’ll end on this note: I asked Brent Black if he thought the nerd market was underserved on Broadway and off-Broadway. He basically said yes, and I agreed with him. Based on the audiences’ reaction to this show, I can safely say that sci-fi geeks are craving musicals that speak to them, and this musical speaks to them in big, satisfying ways.
May it live long and prosper.
‘Khan!!! The Musical’ is playing through June 4th at the Players Theatre in New York City.
khaniscoming.com