I saw Maine South High School’s production of the comedy musical, My Favorite Year. I personally thought that all of the students did an exemplary job acting. The musical was very entertaining. It had at least one funny line in every scene. I do not usually like musicals, but the music in this play was decent. I liked the story line a lot. It was a realistic story about a young screenwriter.
In the story, Benjy Stone works as a comedy writer for a television variety show like today’s Saturday Night Live. Benjy needs to find a guest star for the next week’s show. He calls in his old time movie idol, Alan Swann. He agrees to star on the show, but once he gets to the studio, the crew realizes that he is a drunk. The star of the show, King Kaiser, wants to bring in another star, but Benjy is willing to risk his job to keep Swann on the show. Benjy must convince Swann to stay sober for the whole week.
The bulk of the story is about Stone trying to keep Swann from drinking. Alan makes it a few days before he starts craving a drink. His temptation is too strong, and he passes out drunk the night before the show. Benjy freaks out and is paranoid about getting fired. Benjy gets Swann to the studio, but Alan becomes very nervous about being on live television and refuses to go on. His most memorable line was, “I’m not a T.V. star; I’m a movie star!”