Artists, art lovers and art critics all have a reputation for being, well...a little snobbish, self-involved. In an act of great self awareness, a group of artists have put on a new musical that takes a long, hard, yet hilarious look at the artistic life. Halfcast productions presents Artist in Trouble, a musical satire of the business of art and the various characters involved.

Artist in trouble!
Artist in need!
Send help on the double,
With all due speed.

You know I'm sinking,
I'm going down!
There's an artist in trouble
All over this town.

Playwright Harrison Matthews says he's been working on Artist in Trouble for years. It's based on his own experiences in the arts community. Matthews says he knows a lot of artists who seem to be always getting into trouble. Instead of writing a serious drama about their tragic lifestyles, he decided to have a little fun.

"We poke fun at the artists themselves and the arts institutions," he says. "It's set in a fictional town of Minneapolopolis, but it could be anywhere: it could be Boston."

"Or it could be Minneapolis."

Some names may seem vaguely familiar, the Guttery theater, the McBlight Foundation, Lake of the Piles. Matthews claims there's no direct attack involved. Instead he says it's an exploration of the troubles of artists, and those who love them.

It's hard to love an artist
When you know his heart is
Married to some canvass on a wall.
It's hard to stand behind him
When you've always to remind him
That the rent is due, the heat's turned off,
The food is gone, I've got a cough
And it's been weeks since I've been shopping at the Mall
...of America.

Director Lola Lesheim says the musical itself has been a transformative experience. Almost everyone involved is taking on a new artistic role.

Lesheim is normally an actor. The lead is played by an actual bronze sculptor. In addition the musical takes place at the deStilo gallery which is using it's space for the first time as a theater.

"It's just been a really interesting exercise," says Lesheim. "It's been like everybody taking their coat and putting it on inside out and actually liking the lining."

The production - billed as part Rocky Horror Show, part Three Penny Opera - follows amateur painter Mortimer Willowwallow Hopper, obscure cousin of Edward Hopper, trying to win a starving artist contest held by the Grovelling Art Gallery. Little does he know gallery owner Mrs WormWood fixes the contest each year with the help of art critic Benjamin Blaster. In the end Blaster admits he doesn't know anything about modern art.

I look upon a canvass. What is it that I see?
A mass of colored shapes - A lock without a key
Everything is so jumbled, topsy turvy and confused,
It's enough to make an art critic thoroughly bemused.

Art! What is art?
Can we begin, or even start
To take apart the mystery
That's plagued us all through history?
What is art?

Artist in Trouble doesn't limit itself to painters and galleries - it also takes on bad poetry at open mike nights. Matthews says the musical itself is an attack at elitist theater by being accessible both in its storyline and the cost of tickets.

The musical culminates in a Hamlet-like duel, because, as Mrs WormWood says, "the only good artist is a dead artist." Paintings are worth much more to her if the artist is a corpse. Director Lola Lesheim says the musical is meant for laughs, but she also hopes it might shed some light on the foibles of the art world.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is - it's not a mock - it's not a roast of the arts community by any means. Really it's sort of an illumination so that we can enjoy and laugh at ourselves," says Lesheim.

Playwright Harrison Matthews adds that, to some extent, we are all Artists in Trouble.