Sean Sanczel is a busy man. Not only is he the writer of The Big Finish, the musical comedy about the end of the world currently playing at St. Petersburg's Music and Theatre Gallery, he's also the play's composer and lyricist, co-director (with Steve Mountan) and star. And in most of these roles he does a creditable job. True, as a playwright, he has notable weaknesses; but in all his other capacities, Tampa resident Sanczel (pronounced San-zel) is inventive, unpredictable, ingratiating and simply wacky. This is a composer whose melodies recall Meredith Wilson and Andrew Lloyd Webber, a lyricist who's as quick with a witty turn of phrase as with a heartfelt love letter, and an actor/director with a Mel Brooksian love of a visual gag. And though The Big Finish starts unpersuasively, by the third act of the play — when the key characters include God, the angel Gabriel and the Devil — the writing is original, the suspense real and the payoff hilarious. If Sanczel had attained this level of imaginativeness in Acts One and Two, The Big Finish would be the must-see of 46th Ave. North. As it is, the show is a likable commixture, and proof that Sanczel is the Bay area's most promising playwright.All three acts of The Big Finish take place in the Oval Office, where President Ben Storm (Sanczel), a former weatherman, enjoys the perks of high office ("I've got my very own jet and a guaranteed place in history …/ The leader of the free world getting all the pretty girls"). Into his sanctum come his Secretaries of Defense, Technology and Morality (David Hershman, Mountan and Jon Van Middlesworth), who, along with the Surgeon General (David Powers), warn him that the populace is losing hope, rivers in South America are turning to blood, there's darkness in mid afternoon, and, most important, several enormous missiles composed of fire and brimstone are hurtling toward the earth. The Secretary of Morality, citing the New Testament, recognizes the symptoms of God's final judgment; but the President, feeling his obligation to his constituents, orders that a secret Star Wars defense shield be employed to hold off Armageddon. The strategem works — which brings the angel Gabriel (Billy Martinez), trumpet in hand, into the White House to demand that the shield be lowered. Finally, God Himself (Ben Rawnsley) visits the Oval Office, hears pleas for mercy and invites everyone into a group hug. The Devil (Mountan again) appears and challenges God to a duel — the Devil loses, of course — and at the end of the play we learn of God's final judgment on the earth. It's both logical and unexpected, and is signaled to the audience with one last, very amusing visual joke.
There are several subplots in The Big Finish, though each is problematic in one way or another. Most prominently, there's the love of the psychotically shy Secretary of Morality for the President's secretary Hope, played by Bonnie Smith. This romance, in dialogue and song, is often enough at the center of the action to make us wonder why it so noticeably has nothing to do with the end-of-the-world narrative. Then there's the sexual liaison of President Storm with his press secretary Charity (Jessica Alexander. The President's unseen wife's name is Faith; thus Faith, Hope and Charity). This is a plot element that never evolves beyond Charity's occasional expressions of lust and her baby talk when addressing the Head of State. And finally there's the appearance of Famine (Dan Khoury), one of the Riders of the Apocalypse, who, having been shot out of the sky by the American military, does nothing for the rest of the play but sit and eat ham. It's problems like these three subplots, along with inessential conversations, stereotypical characters (the tough guy Secretary of Defense, the sex kitten secretary), and repetitive pratfalls that make the script of The Big Finish less than totally satisfying. While these elements are front and center, Sanczel's play comes across as inefficient and uninspired.
But then there are the characters who win back our flagging attention. Best of all is Rawnsley's God, a pleasant, avuncular figure who's quiet-spoken, tolerant and a force for calm, sensible behavior. Delightful too is the archangel Gabriel, who, as played by Martinez, is short-tempered, over-sensitive, and in 16 different ways zany. All the other actors are capable, but not one of the singing voices is exceptional, and in a couple of cases, the crooning is painfully inadequate. Fortunately, Sanczel's lyrics are interesting enough to hold our attention in spite of the singers. (With a nod to Cole Porter: "Birds do it, and they don't make a peep/ Bees do it with a sting so deep/ You could even do it in your sleep!/ We all gotta go sometime.") Dan Khoury as Famine doesn't have much to do, but with a beard down to his knees and wearing little but rags, he's one of the most striking performers you'll ever see. Travis Horstmann's set of the Oval Office contains all the important details — portraits of Washington and Lincoln, an American flag, the centrally located desk — and Julie Bartel's costumes are clever and winning — Gabriel's wings, extending from his suit, are especially memorable. Finally, Mountan and Sanczel's direction is intelligent, making use of offstage areas when the small Music and Theatre Gallery playing space is insufficient.
I've occasionally complained that there are too few playwrights of distinction in the Tampa Bay area, a fact that has always seemed to me neither inevitable nor easily explicable. I'm encouraged, therefore, by the best moments in The Big Finish to think that Sanczel is on his way to becoming a writer (and actor and director) of real merit. The Big Finish is a much more interesting work than the previous show Sanczel offered us, The Importance of Being Ernie (about comedian Ernie Kovacs). If Sanczel's next play is a further advance — if this playwright is genuinely learning from each production — he may well turn out to be a precious Bay area resource. Already I can discern his unique comic vision. Now that vision needs to be sharpened and clarified.
Once it is, we may come to see The Big Finish as neither finish nor start; but as a key passage in the making of an important local talent.
This article appears in Oct 6-12, 2004.