COLMA: THE MUSICAL (Richard Wong, U.S.). 98 minutes. Wednesday (May 23), 5:15 pm, Isabel Bader. Rating: NN Rating: NN
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Reviews : Red Without Blue |
The low-budget Colma: The Musical tells the story of three ethnically diverse kids in the middle-class San Francisco suburb of Colma who are stuck in that limbo between high school and real life.
The set-up is amusing, and director Richard Wong captures the musical sequences with campy gusto. He doesn’t do much with the script, however. Colma, we’re told, is the unofficial cemetery capital of the country, and this could have provided a much-needed motif.
The tunes, by H. P. Mendoza, who also plays the queer Filipino guy in the bunch, have a catchy pop vibe, but the lyrics are often hard to make out. And you have to sit through a rambling, melodramatic middle section to get to the stylish ending.
