Would the United States actually be safer if every single one of us owned a gun? Philip Labes and Michael O’Konis take that notion and run with it in their clever, tuneful, unexpectedly heart-filled More Guns! A Musical Comedy About The NRA, a Saturday night smash for Hollywood’s The Second City.

 The revival-meeting strains of “NRAmen” set an irreverent tone from the get-go as choir robe-clad cast members extol the multitude of virtues bestowed upon the National Rifle Association by Heavenly Father above. (“Satan’s a home-invading thug, but the Lord owns a gun.”)

Not that God alone is enough, however, for the NRA to protect gun-owners’ rights across the land.

 For that you can count on D.C. lobbyist Ron Barkley (Andrew Pifko), who switched over from promoting banks to lobbying for guns when his wife was shot to death while waiting on background check results that would have had her armed and ready to fire back, and who now leads his fellow gun supporters in the jazzy, Fosse-esqe “Do The Lobby.”

Unfortunately for his now half-orphaned daughter, Ron’s work in D.C. has left precious little time to spend with teenage Christina (Marnina Schon), who not only misses Mommy and Daddy but now faces the imminent departure of her cute but slightly dim (“I don’t just think so. I know I think so.”) boyfriend Wolf (understudy O’Konis) for college in Cali.

Still, if anything can keep Walt and Christina together while he’s away smoking legal weed, it’s their “Liberal Love,” proclaimed ‘80s style in a love duet that would do Peter Cetera and Cher (or Amy Grant) proud.

Meanwhile, Ron must convince NRA-funded lawmakers like congressman Thurmon (Mike McLendon) to vote against universal background checks, the better to bring about the day “When Everyone Has A Gun,” More Guns!’s answer to “We Are The World.” (“If they try to hold you up at gunpoint, here’s what you can do. Take out your gun and you hold them right back up too.”)

And wonder of wonders, Ron’s dream kind-of sort-of comes true, though not quite as he expected.

It’s about here that More Guns! gets more than a little absurd, but no biggie. Book-music-lyric writers Labes and O’Konis are as multi-talented as they are risk-taking.

Not only that, but they know the value of a reprise or two, as “Liberal Love” becomes “Conservative Love” becomes “Bipartisan Love,” ensuring that audiences will be humming at least one of their catchy tunes on the ride home.

 Without villainizing gun supporters (even Ron is given an understandable reason to oppose background checks), More Guns! doesn’t hesitate to expose the hypocrisy of gun owners’ conventions that allow “friends” to sell to “friends” (“At The Gun Show” gives Sesame Street and Avenue Q a run for their puppeteering money) or click-baiting websites that will do anything to get more hits.

Oh, and if anyone happens to doubt the homoeroticism of a pistol, just wait till NRA president Lisa Bushmaster (understudy Mary Lou) hits sky-high notes in “I Like To F*** Guns.”

Following a brief Zephyr Theatre run this past summer, More Guns! has been trimmed down to a lickety-split seventy minutes from its original two-act format, though truth be told it would be even better with a ten-or-fifteen-minute-longer running time. (I can’t help wondering what additional song gems may have been cut.)

Still, you won’t hear any complaints from this reviewer about what remains.

Zach Siegel directs with abundant pizzazz, choreographer Dahlya Glick scores high for some inspired dance numbers, and with O’Konis as musical director and band members Scott Anthony, Ari Giancaterino, and Ian Wurfl providing rocking live accompaniment throughout, More Guns! proves a non-stop delight.

Schon and O’Kunis make for an irresistible pair of teens in love, Pifko is a singing-dancing dynamo as Ron, McLendon and Lou make equally strong impressions on opposing sides of the gun lobby fence, and Shukri Abdi, understudy Ricky Abilez, Glick, Jack Norman, and Sidne Phillips sizzle throughout in multiple cameo roles.

More Guns! is produced by Joshua Funk and Carrie-ann Pishnak. John DeFour is assistant director. Bentley Hibbard is stage manager.

Stars like Bill Murray, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Steve Carell, and Stephen Colbert may have made The Second City synonymous with improv since its inception way back in 1959, but the Chicago-based company’s Hollywood branch now proves itself equally adept at Broadway-style musical comedy. You won’t have More Fun! on a Hollywood Saturday this holiday season than with More Guns!

The Second City Hollywood, 6560 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood.
https://www.secondcity.com/shows/hollywood/

–Steven Stanley
November 24, 2018

Tags: Los Angeles Theater Review, Michael O'Konis, Philip Labes, The Second City Hollywood