I defy anyone to resist the canine charmers of Mutt House, or their human companions, or the songs, or the laughter, or the romance, or the heart of this Kirk Douglas Theatre guest production, as gem-perfect an L.A. World Premiere musical as I’ve seen in at least a dog’s year.

 Ryan McCartan (Fox TV’s The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let’s Do the Time Warp Again and off-Broadway’s Heathers: The Musical) stars as Third Street Animal Shelter employee Eddie Corbin, born like Dr. Doolittle before him with the uncanny ability to talk to the animals, a gift that serves him in good stead when called upon to comfort aged bloodhound Joanie (Valerie Larsen) on her way to the “restricted room” and doggie heaven.

 Joanie’s demise (the first sign that Mutt House has more on its mind than mere laughs) leaves room for a new addition, and before long poodle Sophie (Larsen) is being welcomed by pit bull Bradley (Garrett Marshall), Labrador Digger (Ben Palacios), mongrel Donna (Amanda Leigh Jerry), corgi Max (Max Wilcox), and chihuahua Pepe (Gabriel González) into what would be the perfect halfway house on the road to adoption if not for one not-so-slight hitch.

 Unbeknownst to Eddie, his supervisor Gerry (Boise Holmes) has been hiding five months’ worth of notices sent from the office of Her Honor Mayor Jenkins (Heather Olt) announcing the shelter’s impending closure, news that finally reaches Eddie’s ears when intern Hannah Matthews (Claire Adams) arrives to pick up paperwork as yet unsigned.

To our hero’s added dismay, who should Hannah turn out to be but the girl who (along with twelve hundred other middle schoolers) helped make “Weird Eddie’s” junior high years a living hell and on whom Eddie has nursed an unrequited crush every bit as powerful today as it was a decade ago!

Will Hannah realize that she and Eddie are made for each other, overcome her fear of dogs, and persuade the mayor to change her mind? Will Bradley, Digger, Donna, Max, Pepe, and Sophie live to see another day? Will Major Jenkins get the comeuppance she deserves? Will Gerry ever summon up the courage to ask Animal Control Officer Jackie (Olt) out on a date?

 Though the answers to these and other questions are about as predictable as tomorrow’s sunrise, it’s the getting there that makes Mutt House such an unalloyed delight.

Like Bark! The Musical before it, Mutt House features six of the most loveable pooches ever and plenty of songs to make that abundantly clear.

What makes Mutt House the more satisfying of the two is in a storyline that grabs you from the start with its life-or-death stakes and a hero the sensational McCartan will have you rooting for from his first entrance.

There’s also Mutt House creator Tony Cookson’s captivating book, songs (music and lyrics by John Daniel, Cookson, Robb Curtis Brown, and David O) so hook-filled you’ll be craving an Original Cast recording to put on repeat play, and choreographer Janet Roston’s pooch-perfect dance numbers, from the show-opening “Get Me Out Of Here” to the Digger salute that is “Naturally Cool” to “In Junior High,” with the mutts taking on human form to remind Eddie of the days he was “a superstar in his own freak show.”

 Under Ryan Bergmann’s inspired direction, performances dazzle and delight throughout, beginning with cliche-defying leading man McCartan, who manages to be both charismatically charming and heartbreakingly awkward (in an “on the spectrum” sort of way), quirky and multi-dimensional, and to show off Broadway pipes to boot.

 Edgy girl-next-door Adams, fresh from her stunning title performance in Actors Co-op’s Violet, once again proves herself a musical theater star on the rise,  and Olt is a hoot two times over as a politician without an ounce of scruples (redundant?) and a tomboy with an unrequited hankering for Holmes’s silky-voiced mensch of a Gerry.

As for the mutts themselves, expect to fall head over heels for each and every one, from González’s salsarrific Pepe to dance captain Jerry’s feisty East Coast Donna to Larsen’s pampered princess of Sophie (and her doomed Joanie) to Marshall’s tough but tenderhearted Bradley to Palacios’s too-sexy-for-his-collar Digger to Wilcox’s cuddly, boy-pup-loving Max.

 Mutt House sounds terrific thanks to O’s arrangements, musical director Anthony Lucca and his rocking five-piece onstage band, and sound designer Cricket S. Myers, and it looks just as fabulous on Stephen Gifford’s appropriately grungy set featuring properties designer Michael O’Hara’s multitude of canine-related paraphernalia, strikingly lit by Matthew Brian Denman.

Best of all is costume, hair, and makeup designer Allison Dillard’s supremely imaginative mutt-wear, with added snaps to Mayor Jenkins’ power suits and do, Eddie, Gerry, and Jackie’s uniforms, and Hannah’s dress-for-success ensembles.

 Tom DeTrinis is associate director. Marcedes L. Clanton is production stage manager.

Mutt House is produced by Christopher Sepulveda. Blake Silver is associate producer. Casting is by Michael Donovan. Michael Deni, Justin Anthony Long, Shelby Talley, and Gina Torrecilla are understudies.

I expected to enjoy Mutt House because face it, there’s nothing like a dog to melt a reviewer’s heart. I didn’t expect to fall madly in love with it, but madly in love I have fallen. For once a WOW! does not suffice. This one gets a BOW WOW!

Kirk Douglas Theatre, 9820 Washington Blvd., Culver City. Reservations: 213 628-2772
www.MutthouseTheMusical.com

–Steven Stanley
July 18, 2018
Photos: Daren Scott

Tags: Kirk Douglas Theatre, Los Angeles Theater Review, Ryan McCartan, Tony Cookson