2pac: The Musical will leave you with “So Many Tears” from laughing

Last week the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theater (UCBT) featured another performance of 2Pac: The Musical, a musical tribute to 2Pac co-written by Kevin DeBacker and Evan Greenspoon, double-billed with "Prison Freaks: A Talent Show," a one-woman talent show set at "Charlie Sheen's prison," written and performed by Shannon O'Neill.

2Pac: The Musical is set in a mall food court and revolves around three employees of China Wok played by DeBacker, Greenspoon and Laura Zeis. Corey Johnson also acted in three roles as a suicidal homeless man, a rude customer and a female customer.

The group broke into song a few times during the show while the backing tracks to various 2Pac songs played over the sound system like "Changes" and "Me Against the World."

One particularly hilarious moment included 2Pac's "California Love." Greenspoon's character, who apparently paints covered bridges, discovered that there were no covered bridges in California, where he and DeBacker's character were planning on moving. When DeBacker happily sings "California…" to him, Greenspoon responds in a forlorn monotone, "knows how to party."

Another song that fit perfectly with the show was "Brenda's Got a Baby." Zeis's character Brenda was pregnant through the majority of the show, which created a few moments for jokes about drinking while pregnant and the perfect set up for this song.

DeBacker and Greenspoon sang the rap to her including lines like "In love with the molester, who's sexing her crazy/ And yet she thinks that he'll be with her forever," to which she responded, "[My boyfriend] works at Sears!"

Johnson's characters were all hilarious and over-the-top. He first appeared as a homeless man who hung around China Wok talking about killing himself and his cat, played by a stuffed cat.

Next he re-appeared onstage as a customer who hit on Brenda and ended up punching her in the stomach without seeming to notice that she was pregnant. His third role was an erotically charged female customer who thought Greenspoon was harassing her, but kept whirling around and slapping DeBacker.

With plenty more jokes and the birth of Brenda's child, on the counter of China Wok, 2Pac: The Musical is definitely an opportunity not to be missed for fans of comedy, musicals and, of course, 2Pac.

The addition of a talent show run by a computer and featuring several equally insane prisoners showcasing their singing, dancing and drawing abilities just added to the hilarity.

Shannon O'Neill's portrayal of a few crazy prisoners just becomes more and more inane as the show progresses. From a woman who rapes men, steals and wears their mustaches and sings about it to a middle-aged man who draws caricatures, O'Neill both entertains and nearly terrifies the audience to the point that you can imagine she is the prisoners she portrays.

O'Neill even includes the audience in her show. As the man-raping mustache-stealer, she points out a man whose beard she wants to wear and says "Beards: harder to get [than mustaches], but more fun to wear." The computer, who acts as the host of the prisoner talent show, also provides some jokes through various slides.

Read The Pace Press' interview with Kevin DeBacker and Evan Greenspoon, the writers behind 2pac: The Musical here.