Melanie Adelman and Ellen Dvorkin have been friends since they were 12 years old and fixtures on the New York cabaret circuit for the past few years.
“Mel & El: This Show Rhymes” had a year-long engagement at the downtown club The Duplex.
A new show by the duo — “Mel & El: Show & Tell” — is running at Ars Nova in Manhattan through May 30; it’s an entertaining hybrid that combines elements of a free-wheeling (and sometimes raunchy) nightclub act with a more fully realized theater piece about friendship and nostalgia.
Mel & El play themselves in a garish pink room festooned with 1980s pop cultural memorabilia — everything from posters for John Hughes movies to pin-ups of Madonna and George Michael.
The premise of the show is that these two 30something women have invited friends over for a trip down memory lane and an examination of the ups and downs of female friendship. Ars Nova is such a cozy space that the illusion of a party for friends is easily sustained.
Mel is tall and blonde — and the more reserved of the two women.
El is a shorter, redhead firecracker in the Bette Midler vein who can keep us on her side even through the rudest of material — and some of her stuff is VERY rude — thanks to an infectious grin and an ever-present twinkle in her eyes.
Both of the women have crack comic timing that carries us over the weaker sections of the show.
“Show & Tell” is powered by some very catchy tunes by Patrick Spencer Bodd and a terrific four piece band made up of drummer Greg Joseph, bass/cello player Jordan Jancz, guitarist Sean Harkness and keyboard player Jasper Grant.
Mel and El display genuine musical comedy chops in the song sequences which climax with a hilarious mock hip hop number in which the friends finally get fed up with each other’s antics and start ripping each other to shreds.
You might be reminded of “Avenue Q” by the way that the bouncy tunes punch up Mel and El’s gags and give the show a sometimes weird vibe of kiddie TV for adults.
(Ars Nova is at 511 W. 54th St. For ticket information, go to arsnovanyc.com)
