A piece of me was missing, but no more. A Slice of Reggie the full-length musical by Ben Sulzberger and Robbie Kroeschell  delivered a flavorful tale of pizza, love and confusion, leaving me satisfied and complete. It tells the story of Reggie, an in debt History major who has been thrown into a depressive stupor by the sudden end to his lengthy relationship. Jefferson, Reggie’s reckless, drug dealing friend convinces Reggie to use a hallucinatory drug as a way to deal with his despair. Cue: floating pizzas, and we are off into the depths of Reggie’s tripping mind. In this vision he is visited by a series of historical figures who deliver timeless advice and a brilliant satirical commentary of the past. From the cowboy president he learns confidence, from FDR he learns positivity through anything, from Ronald Reagan President of the Universe he learns, well, that he hates Ronald Raygun. Ultimately, however, he realizes that the best he can do is be himself. Gradually, Reggie learns how to fix not just the loss of his relationship, but also the missing slice in his life.

It tells the story of the millennials; the coming and going of relationships, college debt, experimentation with substances, and perhaps most importantly, the love of and very real dependence on pizza. It skillfully evokes what it means to be young in this day an age; with a world of problems all we have to look forward to. It criticizes the generalizations made by older generations by giving the millennials a voice. The “druggie drop out” is actually a kind, caring, loyal friend. Young love isn’t just young love; it is something complex and genuine. Kids these days aren’t lazy they are just overwhelmed and unsure about the future. It offered a unique and relatively new perspective on the present by evoking the past, and was tastefully done, perhaps more so than the pizza it personified.

The musical accompaniment was played live by Robbie Kroeschell on the electric guitar and keyboard, and this one-man-band delivered a diverse high for the ears. Just as the story contrasted the past with the present, the music contrasted more modern rap and rock with a more traditional broadway score.  The lyrics were witty, original and sung spectacularly by the talented cast. The money made by the production is being used to produce a cast album and I would highly recommend getting it because the songs weren’t just entertaining ways to move the plot along they were also just really good songs; easily able to stand alone without the context of the musical.

A Slice of Reggie went above and beyond the typical musical. It not only made me smile, and laugh, but also made me think. It made me think about love and society AND afterwards how I could really use a pizza which I proceeded to get. All I can say is: Thank you Ben. Thank you Robbie. Thank you for this musical, I hope to see it again on Broadway.