Who Is Mel Gussow's 'Bundle Of Nerves'?

Mel Gussow 1983 review on the musical “Bundle of Nerves”, was evidently a pan review. His negatively humorous tone undoubtedly indicated that the overall portrayal of the production was highlighted boring and self-evident. He criticizes, “Song after song marches in line, sometimes striking a satiric nerve but seldom developing a theme past the point of diagnosis”. This quote reveals his painful observation of how predictable and blatantly obvious this script was. He suggests that the writers have been moderately successful in their passed parodies, but a noticeable deterioration in the quality of writing for this musical. Not only did the writing captured such negative attention, but also in the design process. He teases the unnecessary neon sign lite above the stage shouting “nerve”, as a “single funny gag”. This mocking jab at the appearance of the production emphasizes his unfavourable response to the point of making it comparable to feeling nauseous.

He states, “the singers are eager even when the songs are unsupportive. At least one of them, Karen Mason, has an opportunity to demonstrate a range”. While admitting his positive critiques towards this actors singing skills, he still manages to leave it off with an adverse perception. Mel explains, although the singer has talent, the song itself did not match the quality of the performer. As well, he applauded the actors willingness and eagerness to the song and role, even though it was unsupported to the quality of performance that was portrayed. Generally speaking, it is evident that Mel believes the writing and direction of the musical mainly brings down the play to become predictable and dull, while using a satire approach to mock