East Nashville Facebook Page: The Musical
To summarize this review: unequivocal praise.
I saw Cherry Bomb’s first East Nashville Facebook Page: The Musical back in 2023 as part of the Kindling Arts Festival at the Darkhorse Theater. I had to miss last year’s version because of morning sickness (I have this thing about vomiting in public), but they had already grown out of the space and into Riverside Revival, a repurposed East Nashville church that houses community events. This year’s two-performance version of the musical bookended the Tomato Arts Festival, and over 600 people saw the show at Riverside Revival. I saw their Sunday show.
80% of the show was new material. They kept the general revue format, and every few skits Seth Green or Alex Dolezal would spin a wheel, receive a printout of a “missed connections” post from the Facebook page, and improvise a song based on it.
I really enjoyed Cherry Bomb’s musical two years ago, but their skill and sheer comedic talent have multiplied since then, honed through their regular improv performances at the Third Coast Comedy Club here in Nashville. This show had more props, costumes, and even several video skits. Their music is as excellent as ever under the talented Alex Dolezal on keys, David Supica on bass, and Vince Rominelli on drums. Live music is always best, and these talented musicians’ songs had musical quality and catchiness that went beyond mere humor.
What made the show extra fun was its balance of two types of humor: improv and written sketch comedy. Emma Supica and Alex Dolezal wrote and directed the show. Their writing is hilarious: my favorite skit was an incredibly tangential joke. The Facebook post that inspired it showed on the screen, a photo of a streetside utility box with “fuck nazis” graffitied on it. Emma Supica entered the stage in a nun outfit, holding a can of spray paint and looking pleased with herself. Rolf and Liesl entered the stage a moment later and began singing “I am Sixteen Going on Seventeen,” from The Sound of Music. The nun, Maria, got bothered by the flirting and asked Liesl if she had seen her graffiti. Liesl answered, “Yeah, I’m trying,” and the sexual tension between her and Rolf increased. At the end of the song, as Liesl and Rolf were leaving the stage, Liesl paused and said, “Oh, you mean fuck nazis,” and turned and kneed Rolf in the groin. Describing a joke in a review reads flat, but for the first time in my life, I heard people laughing so hard they were stomping.
Another fantastic musical number was their expanded “Sex Chair 4 Sex.” The original skit is based on a photo of a trashed armchair at the side of the road with “Sex Chair 4 Sex” spraypainted on it. Their original skit was this sexy chair singing about itself. This meme chair even has stickers. In the past few months, the real chair has been completely torn up. At the end of the number a cast member ran through the audience and stabbed the chair to death, with a photo of the now destroyed chair on the screen. This moved the skit from their original song to a parody of Chicago’s “Cell Block Tango,” the murderesses being chairs instead. The best touch was the replacement of Hunyak’s innocent pleas in Hungarian with an IKEA chair’s swedish chef voice.
At the end of the musical the entire group improvised a song based on a post that a member of the audience provided. This moment demonstrated just how good Cherry Bomb is: their cooperation was seamless, from deciding who got to solo to inventing and sharing choreography. It takes me a few tries to properly imitate a multistep move from an exercise video, and here the stage was full of people coordinating flawlessly with each other. Somehow every member of the cast has an excellent voice too (especially Seth Green). This was particularly showcased in the improvised ensemble songs when they were able to harmonize perfectly.
East Nashville Facebook Page: The Musical was unmitigated fun, with well crafted layers of humor. Their focus on a local Facebook Page is a wonderful look at the specific instances of universal human foibles. I hope they return next year; as long as we have the internet, there will never be a shortage of material. Until then, I plan to catch one of their shows at the Third Coast Comedy Club, and I recommend you do too.
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A Nashville native and MTSU graduate, Grace Krenz is a reader, a writer, and an arts enthusiast. She lives in Nashville with her husband and two children.
