''Knat Scatt Private Eye'' is a two-act, 1930s-style film noir musical, which played for an extended run at The Theater Building in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1986, featuring a young

Steve Carell Steven John Carell (; born August 16, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He played Michael Scott in ''The Office'' (2005–2011; 2013), NBC’s adaptation of the British series created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, where Ca ...

. It was based on a one-act musical with the same title which was originally produced earlier that year by

Players Workshop Created in 1971 by Josephine Forsberg, The Players Workshop was Chicago's only official school of improvisation for over a decade. Although it was never officially a part of The Second City cabaret theater, The Players Workshop was often referred ...

for The Children's Theater of The Second City, and performed on The Second City stage in Chicago. Both versions of ''Knat Scatt Private Eye'' were written and directed by

Eric Forsberg Eric Forsberg (born December 16, 1959) is an American writer. He wrote and directed the feature film '' Mega Piranha'', as well as the writer of the feature film '' Snakes on a Train'', one of the first mockbusters produced and released by The ...

with music and lyrics by Charlie Silliman.

Background

The 1930s-style musical comedy thriller, ''Knat Scatt Private Eye'', was first produced as a musical for young audiences at The Children's Theater Of The Second City in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

in 1986. The original production was produced by

, the improv school and production company that trained young performers in sketch comedy for The Second City stage. After attending a performance of ''Knat Scatt Private Eye'' at the Second City, independent producers, Robert and Marion Mortimer commissioned the writers to rework the one-act musical into a two-act Broadway-style production for adults. Composer and lyricist, Charlie Silliman, and script writer, Eric Forsberg rewrote the original children's show to be more appealing to a general audience. The new version of ''Knat Scatt Private Eye'' was remounted in its new form at The Theater Building in Chicago later that year. The second production of ''Knat Scatt Private Eye'' starred Walter Lewis, Mary Weiss, Lori Hammel, Tim Scott Ferguson,

, John Richmond Kenney, Collette Hawley, Marla Cahan, Carla Kendal, Don Neason, Brian-Mark Conover, Travis Lawhon, Phil Martini, and Marilyn Rudnick. Sets were designed by

Martin de Maat Martin de Maat (January 12, 1949 – February 15, 2001) was a teacher and artistic director at The Second City in Chicago. He also taught at Columbia College and Players Workshop. He studied under Viola Spolin. De Maat and Del Close were the t ...

. The cast of 14 performers play over 40 characters in 2 hours. Carell played the numb-skull henchman of Ben Behemoth, where one of his bits was burping the alphabet (a gag later used in one of his films), Tony the tough, opera-singing Mafioso and Ching, the singing and dancing Chinese tough who shakes down a neighborhood restaurant owner before Knat Scatt beats him up and saves the day. The second production opened to good reviews from the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago ...

'' and the ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...

''. The play ran for six months on The Theater Building's main stage.

Members of the ''Knat Scatt Private Eye'' cast move on

A number of members of the production went on to much bigger things. Mary Weiss was one of the creators of ''The Real Live Brady Bunch'' at The

Annoyance Theater The Annoyance Theatre, or Annoyance Productions, is a theatre and associated ensemble based in Chicago, Illinois, that deals mainly in absurd and outrageous humor. Many people who have performed with the ensemble have gone on to become successf ...

, which led to a series of feature film remakes. Marla Cahan went on to become a big casting director in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

and

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went on to become the head of

The Second City Training Center The Second City Training Center was founded in the mid-1980s to facilitate the growing demand for workshops and instruction from the world famous The Second City theatre. Training Centers are located in Chicago, Toronto and Los Angeles. Satelli ...

.http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-4582991.html Eric Forsberg went on to make feature films.

went on to become a member of

The Second City The Second City is an improvisational comedy enterprise and is the oldest ongoing improvisational theater troupe to be continually based in Chicago, with training programs and live theatres in Toronto and Los Angeles. The Second City Theatre o ...

comedy troupe, and later the star of blockbuster movies like '' 40 Year Old Virgin'', ''

Anchorman A news presenter – also known as a newsreader, newscaster (short for "news broadcaster"), anchorman or anchorwoman, news anchor or simply an anchor – is a person who presents news during a news program on TV, radio or the Internet ...

'', and '' Little Miss Sunshine''.

References

{{Reflist 1986 musicals