Song Of The Day 6/3/2014: Stephen Bienskie & Lucia Spina - "Put The F***ing Lotion In The Basket" (from "Silence! The Musical")

Broadway Off And On: Well, there'd be an NSFW tag on this one here. Silence! The Musical started on the internet, which is that thing you're on right now, when two well-adjusted men named Jon and Al Kaplan came up with nine songs that retold the story of the horror classic The Silence Of the Lambs. Their work became so popular that it clawed its way through workshops to an actual off-Broadway opening in 2011, with a lot of additional songs supplanting the original nine. Last year it was revived for its longest run yet in a theatre in Times Square.

Liberties taken include amping up the Southern accent of heroine FBI Agent Clarise Starling and giving her a mad, overdriven longing for the spotlight. Actress Jenn Harris makes her sound like a cross between Sean Connery and Carol Burnett's Eunice character. I'm sure they had fun with Hannibal Lecter's character as well, but I can't bring myself to listen to any of his songs on the cast album. However, I'm pretty sure the best song of all is one of the original nine: "Put the Fucking Lotion In the Basket," a gentle restatement of the tense scene between killer/dog lover/tanner Buffalo Bill and his prisoner Catherine, because I can't stop listening to it. For those of you who need a reminder of an important plot point not covered in the previously linked clip, later in the movie Catherine lures Bill's poodle into her cell as her own hostage. Beyond that I'll say no more and just let this tender expression of will envelop you in its long, leathery arms. Silence!