Tues. Jan. 26  through Sun. Jan. 31

Well, just in time for the ever unfolding recession, it's "Boyce & Melinda’s Investment Strategies for the Post-Money World: A musical investment seminar" up at the BCA's Virgina Wimberly Theatre. (Actually, it was up last fall on the Cape, but life goes now, much as it did then, right?) With music by the diversely commanding Chandler Travis and starring the equally adroit actors Will Lebow (in photo) and Julie Perkins as the titular characters “Boyce & Melinda’s” combines Schoolhouse Rock with “Rich Dad” infomercials to get audiences pumped up about feeling so down. With music that ranges from Prince-y pop (complete with that keyboard on a strap thingy) to AC/DC rock (complete with a host of MTV clichés) to a “Boss” finale  that lets the Big Man blow a bit too long, the show offers insight and advice about what to do when the portfolio is as flat as a…well…portfolio. Though Lebow and Perkins may not be natural singers, they sure give it all they got and join in on the winking and laughing and weeping and wailing right along with everyone else. Lambasting Dem and Rep alike with a series of clever acronyms and impressive econo-babble (which is apparently easier to handle than the “regular” lines), Lebow and Perkins’ audacious alter-egos point fingers at “Them” while encouraging “us” to take action- Even if that “action” involves moving to a Canadian island to start all over in what they call “New America.” A pioneering piece of timely theater that is knowingly overdone,  “Boyce & Melinda” is a financial farce that both edifies and entertains.

(contriubed by Matt Robinson)

JSInk adds: We asked Travis about "Investment Strategies" when it went up in Truro last year. "I've been trying to talk Gip Hoppe into doing a musical together for years (albeit mostly on the golf course)," he e-mailed, "and he's finally cooked up a whopper: an investment seminar set in 2019, after the complete collapse of the economy and  the resignation of President Palin. this thing is going to be hilarious ... I just love the idea of doing an investment seminar as a theater piece, and getting proximity to words and phrases like 'financial,' 'bailout,' 'pork futures' and 'credit derivative mortgage backed securities' - I'm telling you, I'm like a kid in a candy store!! Luckily for me, Gip needed some really bad music to go along with the horrible words, so I've prepared grueling adaptations of horrid, long-dead ideas by folks like Metallica, Porter Wagoner, Celine Dion, and Bruce Springsteen -there won't be a dry seat in the house."

The 90-minute show runs Tues-Sun. Check the website below for showtimes and ticket info.

 
539 Tremont St., 617-933-8600 www.bostontheatrescene.com