"Rock Me Sexy Jesus." "You're As Gay As the Day is Long." "Raped in the Face."
These aren't insults. They're song titles from the new film "Hamlet 2," which opened over the weekend.
The pic follows an eternally affirmative but marginally talented high school drama teacher as he mounts an ambitious musical sequel to "Hamlet" that he hopes will save the school's drama department. The irreverent songs come as choreographed musical numbers in the bookman production, which closes the film.
Director Andrew Fleming, a self-proclaimed fan of musicals, co-wrote the flick and its titillating tunes with "South Park" writer-producer Pam Brady.
"Because I'd never written songs before, we didn't know what the rules were," aforesaid Fleming, whose previous credits include "Nancy Drew" and "Dick." "We didn't experience you shouldn't write about the tasteless things loss around in your head."
Brady got some experience with silly songs when she worked on "South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut" and "Team America: World Police," but that was "just a few lyrics," she said. "I had never actually written a full thing."
Fleming and Brady spent fin years writing the "Hamlet 2" screenplay. The songs came in a rush just earlier filming began.
"It was like an accidental panic foolery," Fleming said.
Though the songs' titles and lyrics are kooky and crass, they are presented with finish sincerity by drama teacher Dana Marschz (Steve Coogan) and his cast of misfit students. That's what makes the otherwise astringent songs sing, Brady said.
"This musical is coming from the mind of Dana Marschz, the teacher, and he doesn't think it's funny and he's non trying to be unsavoury," she said. "The laugh of it is that he's so damaged and he's trying to be so honest with his feelings simply he's so limited with his abilities that it ends up being completely inappropriate."
A trio of teenaged girls bob their heads as they sing "Rock Me Sexy Jesus."
"He's the son of God and I think that's nerveless," they chirrup. "But he's got a swimmer's frame like cypher do."
"Raped in the Face" is tempered as a heart-wrenching confessional set to piano, xylophone and violins.
"Therapy's taken me to a better place," the actors sing. "So why do I feel like I've been sacked in the face?"
The singalong, happy 1960s vibe of "You're As Gay As the Day is Long" belies its mostly unprintable lyrics.
"You're as gay as the nox is dark," the hale cast sings. "You're as gay as a unicorn park."
In crafting the songs, Fleming said he and Brady weren't aiming to offend.
"It was just what came to us of course," he aforementioned. "It possibly came extinct of defeat because we had seen so many musicals and we were trying to do something that was really funny.
"I'm not simulation these songs are as good as any musical ever," he continued. "I hope the great unwashed will think they're a breath of fresh air."
Coogan said the warmhearted nature of his character is what makes the play palatable.
"However false he might be, he's really passionate. He's non cynical," Coogan said. "He's trying to do something. He's trying to make a difference of opinion, and that's what underpins some of the dumb stuff in it."
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On the Net:
http://www.hamlet2.com
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