Left to right, Michael Harrigan Ritchie, Carolyn Pool and Brian Kelly in The Temp (Photo by Shannon Rusten)

Highbrow, meaningful art it's not, but you may not see a show so thoroughly entertaining or enjoyable this summer as The Temp. All the traditional superlative showbiz cliché’s apply, and the adoring press the musical comedy got when it originally debuted in 1998 -- including a nod from City Pages as the #1 show of the year -- still holds true in this reprise 10 years on. The Temp is a surefire hit.

The well-balanced cast, including three original cast members, clearly enjoys performing and treats this show with unmistakably loving care. Writer/director Brian Kelly reprises his role as the title character, an office temp in the mold of a High Plains Drifter cowboy, even making his entrance to the spooky strains of The Good, The Bad and The Ugly theme.

The story is simple enough. A non-descript office fires an underachieving employee, ends up understaffed and calls in a temp to save the day. Meanwhile, the fired employee returns to exact revenge by playing all manner of office pranks.

Wasting no time on fluff, the jokes in The Temp are timely, clever and paced like the ticks of a well-oiled clock. You’ll find yourself laughing out loud nearly all the way through. Which incidentally isn’t very long. I was left wondering if the 15 minute intermission halfway through the 70 minute show was only there to make sure runtime exceeded an hour. (Or to allow the theater to make a few extra bucks from sales of drinks and snacks in the lobby.)

The show boasts about a dozen songs (musical composition and direction by Todd Price), some songs so funny and memorable I found myself wishing there were a live cast album. The show’s first song, “Clockwork” introduces you to the office staff. Besides writer/star Brian Kelly, the other two actors reprising their 1998 roles are Michael Harrigan Ritchie as Richard and “The Phantom of the Storeroom,” and Tom Winner as Mr. Rooney, the boss. New to the production are Carolyn Pool as saleswoman Miss Swanson, who teeters on the brink of an office romance with The Temp, Julie Madden as the secretary, Dave Gangler as “Scooter” the stockroom boy. Emily Tyra and Jane Samsal shine as two lookalike/dress-alike office girls, Trudy and Judy, who also add a touch of ballet (a la Swan Lake) to the already genre-bending show. 

A star in its own right as well is the choreography by Katie Rose McLaughlin and Laura Grant. Part of the campiness of the show as a whole is the result of the mixing of genres from flamenco dancing to show tunes. While Ritchie’s character veers way into Phantom of the Opera territory, The Temp (who incidentally never gets an actual name) remarks, “This office isn’t big enough for all the genres at work.” Which, in my opinion, is one of the reasons this show works. It throws seemingly disjointed, un-related stuff at you while not trying too hard to be anything in particular, and the result (and my word choice is again unavoidably cliché) is magic.

The Temp is the “Love Me Do” of musical theater. If entertainment is what you seek, it delivers.

Visit http://www.thetemp.org for tickets and more information.