Le Petomane sang a hymn to a magic baby pool in “5 Things,” their love letter show to music, films and books. In “A Derby Carol,” they submitted a request in song for Louisville to hang a banner in honor of native son Ned Beatty. The ensemble will perform these numbers and other audience favorites in “Concert-ed Effort,” an evening of Le Petomane original songs Friday and Saturday at The Bard’s Town. Le Petomane doesn’t stage musical theater, exactly, but as the troupe creates their from-scratch off-beat comedies, they can’t seem to avoid the occasion for an original song. “Even shows that really don’t have them, have them. We’ll write incidental music," says co-artistic director Gregory Maupin. "We’re going to do a piece written for 'Ka-BLAM!' And nobody sang in 'Ka-Blam!' It was used as part of an eighties action montage, a getting back into shape song.”The ensemble will also dig into its back catalog for a suite of songs written for “The Lesser Tragedy of Pamman,” a 2008 comedy Maupin describes as "a deliberately pretentious, art-house staging" of a forgotten Greek tragedy. “Lots of songs were written for it that were very much in the pompous, rock opera, 'Jesus Christ Superstar,' 'Tommy' kind of bombastic mode," says Maupin. "We always believed they should have been a concept album, right, so we’re going to make them into fifteen-minute concept album.”The ensemble of six will be joined by musicians and fellow theater-makers Scott Anthony and Brian J. Lilienthal. For those as yet unfamiliar with Le Petomane's musical stylings, the soundtrack to "5 Things" is available for preview online.
