By Melissa Griegel . . .
Jonathan Larson Award Winner Joe Iconis (Be More Chill, Love in Hate Nation) has amassed a “family” of actors that he collaborates with over and over again and seeing the composer/lyricist/playwright on stage with any one of these actors is always a delight. Iconis and George Salazar (Be More Chill, Lightning Thief) are perfectly matched and have such an easy rapport with each other, it’s a joy to watch the pair banter on stage and perform. Iconis accompanies Salazar on the piano and sings along to many of the songs. Salazar is so familiar with Iconis’ work and has performed in many of his shows and workshops, so he perfectly plays off Iconis and immediately gets into character, as if he had written the song himself.
Two-Player Game was supposed to be performed two years ago, and then, well we all know what happened next. Many audience members are such big fans that they actually purchased their tickets two years ago and waited anxiously for the show to be able to be seen live. You can tell that the patrons have been to many Iconis shows, such as Be More Chill, The Black Suits, and Broadway Bounty Hunter, by their reactions to the songs and stories. Another member of the “Joe Iconis Family”, Annie Golden (Broadway Bounty Hunter, Orange is the New Black) enjoyed the show from a booth in the back.
Salazar opened the show with the biggest hit from Be More Chill: “Michael in the Bathroom”. Salazar played the role of Michael Mell and took this opportunity to sing another song from the show, that the character Jeremy Heere sings in the production. Salazar put his all into “Loser Geek Whatever” and seemed to really enjoy being able to take that song on.
Iconis first met Salazar when he came to audition for The Black Suits. Iconis was wowed by the audition and by Salazar’s percussion skills. Although he did not choose Salazar for that role, they reconnected on many projects afterward. They sang “Lisa” from The Black Suits and two songs from Iconis’ show Things to Ruin: “Everybody’s at the Bar Without Me” and “Honey”. Salazar sang “Honey” while playing drums and modified the lyrics to change the female pronouns to male pronouns and descriptions, singing “you are the only fella for me”.
All songs performed during the show had music and lyrics written by Iconis. Iconis loves to put humor into his songs, and they included “Norman” in the set list, a song inspired by Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho. Salazar now lives in Los Angeles. Iconis flew out to California to do Two-Player Game with Salazar in San Francisco. They also met up in Carmel, Indiana to perform at the new Feinstein’s at Hotel Carmichael, where they laughed about the small attendance and the hotel staff giving out free tickets for their show. That was not the case at all at 54 Below, where the room was packed with adoring fans.
For the second half of the show, they premiered songs from a new show that Iconis and Salazar are work-shopping right now. Iconis did a solo for the first song, “Wave”. The musical, yet to be officially titled, is about the life of Hunter S. Thompson, the counter-culture journalist who is most famous for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Salazar took on the role of Oscar “Zeta” Acosta Fierro, who was a Mexican-American attorney affiliated with Thompson. He went full into character with a really enjoyable number called “Song of the Brown Buffalo”. The other two songs from the show, “The Goodbye Song” and “Kaboom” made me excited to see the new musical when it arrives.
They will be live-streaming the show Saturday, February 26 at 7 pm. The in-person show is sold-out, so this is a great opportunity to watch the pair from the comfort of your own home. Tickets for the live-stream can be purchased here: https://54below.com/events/two-player-game-2022/
Photos by Melissa Griegel Photography
