Castration Celebration

It’s summertime and hormones are raging for the high school students at Yale University’s camp for the arts. Olivia arrives with pentup anger over walking in on her dad cheating on her mom with a student, and is determined to write about it. Though Olivia has instituted a personal “boy boycott,” when dashing Max develops an immediate crush on her, her skepticism fuels her writing. Her musical, a reworking of Much Ado About Nothing , mirrors Olivia and Max’s own ups and downs and features many libidinous musical numbers (“Threesome, threesome, threesome/ How can I get me some?/ ... The things we will be doing/ Like the pornos I’ve been viewing”). The characters’ actual dialogue is equally sex-drenched—the American Pie crowd will love it—though the relentless and explicit banter can be exhausting. With a skeevy reinterpretation of Pat the Bunny and a crudely funny song about Bella Swan likely to draw the ire of Twilighters, Wizner’s (Spanking Shakespeare ) sophomore novel may reach new heights—or, possibly, depths—of notoriety. Ages 14–up. (May)