Turn your head and laugh.
A new musical comedy belting its way onto a Williamsburg stage will poke fun at the American health care system with songs and a healthy dose of satire. The title character in “Dr. Glassheart,” opening on Jan. 14 at the Brick Theater, is a thinly-veiled caricature of prominent snake oil salesmen, says the show’s writer.
“It started off as a musical exposé about being able to laugh at our health-care system through the point of view of this doctor, and he’s sort of a Doctor Oz meets Gary Null meets Sanjay Gupta,” said Bushwick playwright Jason Trachtenburg. “He’s clean, he’s well presented, but he does offer some questionable medical advice.”
The play follows the unorthodox career of the titular Dr. Glassheart as he romances his nurse, and provides unsound medical advice to his hapless patients, including one “Rico from Puerto Rico,” who seeks treatment for shell shock following tours in Vietnam and the Persian Gulf. Rico soon finds that Dr. Glassheart offers only bad medicine.
“The doctor has no advice whatsoever to offer Rico,” said the playwright. “He’s losing touch with reality. He’s having flashbacks to his internship, he dreams of being a singer-songwriter, and he falls asleep during every session he has with Rico.”
Soon, Rico from Puerto Rico realizes he must solve his own problems, a message Trachtenburg hopes rubs off on his audience.
“That’s the message of all messages, it’s up to us to heal ourselves,” he said.
But “heal thyself” is not a serious prescription for audience members with a medical emergency.
“We’ll put a disclaimer on the program that this show is not a substitute for actual medical help, and we cannot be held responsible for any medical advice given during the show,” said Trachtenburg.
The author has performed with the jazz band Pendulum Swings and with his family in the indie-rock act the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players, but decided to take a more traditional musical approach for the play’s 10 songs.
“They’re very show tune-y in a Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hammerstein kind of way,” said Trachtenburg. “And I know that’s a big market in New York City, I don’t care what anybody says.”
“Dr. Glassheart” at the Brick Theater [575 Metropolitan Ave. between Union Avenue and Lorimer Street in Williamsburg, (718) 907–6189, www.brick
