Lucinda Hitchcock Cone, Michael Patrick Gaffney, Jacqueline De Muro, Danny Scheie, and Cindy Goldfield Photo by Kevin Berne

Whether seeking online fame, a killer's identity, or a grandmother's forgiveness, Jade can always count on the camera-toting Dean to be loyally by her side. Miller Liberatore's polysexual Dean shines with an underplayed yet still sparkling personality that everyone they meet immediately likes and trusts. More than just a loyal sidekick, Dean's puppy-dog eyes for Jade give away their real feelings to everyone but her, with Dean singing a "Pumped-Up" love song of sorts as they hilariously inflate a bed while brightly, robustly intoning to an absent Jade, "It's like I'm not even thinking straight, but when I'm just about to deflate, you pump me up."

As Sherlock Holmes would say, "The game is afoot." In a co-production with Center Repertory Company, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley has opened the world premiere of this riotous, risqué musical like none other ever staged there or anywhere else, by Min Kahng. Just the title itself is enough to draw a chuckle or two; but in only a few minutes, audience laughter is loud and constant as a humping line-up of seniors bump their buns, singing, "Aging doesn't equal getting spayed, so the Happy Pleasant Valley seniors are getting laid." After all, "Sex is just another option on our rec room shelf," and "you've gotta get what you want before the getting's gone," at Happy Pleasant Valley.

While June is romping under the covers and then clearing out corpses from her bedroom, her twenty-one-year-old and oh-so-hip vlogging granddaughter Jade is accumulating more than 100,000 followers via her globally popular "Self-Made Jade." But when she makes (with the video still streaming) an ageist comment to her camera person about a 35-year-old follower who looks to her like 70, her popularity plunges to nil.

Just as Jade's desperation and depression are settling in, her mother calls and asks her to go check on the Korean-American grandmother she has not seen or talked to in years–her Halmoni–who is being evicted in three days. Upon arriving at HPV and hearing about the senior sexual shenanigans going on there and her grandmother being accused of killing off men with her vim and vigor, Jade decides her own salvation is to have Dean secretly film a new series that will prove she is not anti-aging. Finding out the truth of the deaths before her grandmother loses her apartment will be the storyline for "Helping Halmoni: A Self-Made Jade Vlog Series." To hide what they are doing and to help find the real culprit, Jade tells her Halmoni that she and Dean will announce they are filming a docu-series on the sex lives of older people.

When word gets out, it just so happens that June's prime suspects–i.e., women she believes may be jealous of her being the queen bee when it comes to attracting to her bed the elderly drones of HPV–are all more than eager to be interviewed for Jade's series. There's Bernice (Jacqueline De Muro), who asserts, "The sun hasn't set, so why should we sleep." There's Vicki (Lucinda Hitchcock Cone), who "ain't picky with men, as long as they attend to her feet," and DeeDee (Cindy Goldfield), a "sweetie, so meek, but ... a freak in the sheets." And while the women are June's prime suspects, there could be reasons Larry (Michael Patrick Gaffney), "a very odd soul who favors the role play," and Mort (Danny Scheie), who is "short but not so short where it counts," might want to do in their competition for June's night-time attentions. Everything is thus set for a juicy murder investigation by the now-bonded trio of sleuths: June, Jade, and Dean.

But this nail-biting, yet side-splitting whodunit is also a musical. As clues are being hunted and more sexual secrets are being exposed, the cast sing with collective excellence and exuberance as well as individually notable nuances of timbre, style, and expression. Not only has he penned a musical's book that is outlandishly delicious, Min Kahng has composed lyrically hysterical songs with tunes that have a high potential of actually being recalled in an ear worm or two the next day. But more importantly, the songs are not just sidebars but integral parts of the storytelling, adding revealing details to personalities, relationships, and inner emotions.

While the triangle of comedy, mystery, and musical is clearly the initial take of Min Kahng's Happy Pleasant Valley, as the two hours and thirty-five minutes progress (plus intermission), there is much more depth that later comes to the surface. Secrets long held and shut away from others have caused misconceptions, hurt and alienation for some as well as not living one's true identity for others. The closer the detective trio comes to the truth about a possible killer, the more heart and joy Min Kahng has implanted in his script. And that is the real beauty of Happy Pleasant Valley and why this intergenerational escapade of sex, scandal, and sheer silliness is also a lesson in intergenerational connection, understanding, and love.

The cast accumulated by director extraordinaire Jeffrey Lo is like a San Francisco Bay Area "who's who" of most-popular, best-loved, and with them, he creates magic on the stage. Emily Kuroda's June is often gruff and grumpy around the chatty, nosy women of HPV, but she quickly transforms into a sultry, tango-dancing flirt when an available and interested man passes by. And when she sings, there is a back-room, hard-edge to her voice that belies the big heart that eventually opens itself to be the loving grandmother that Jade has never experienced.

For her part, Jade is also hard-edged, in the beginning being all about herself and herself alone. With a piercing voice that cuts through the air with alert clarity, Sophie Oda's vlogging Jade sings "I'm Self-Made," lusting for the maximum of "likes" and "subscribes" in order "to survive." But the more she and her cohort Dean spend time with Halmoni, and the more unknown parts of her own past come into the open, her Jade reveals layers of herself that maybe even she did not know were there. As Jade begins to realize that self-made does not always equal success, Sophie Oda sings Jade's self-examining, self-confessing, "Do you ever wonder why you are the way you are?" with a beautifully vibrant voice.

Whether seeking online fame, a killer's identity, or a grandmother's forgiveness, Jade can always count on the camera-toting Dean to be loyally by her side. Miller Liberatore's polysexual Dean shines with an underplayed yet still sparkling personality that everyone he meets immediately likes and trusts. More than just a loyal sidekick, Dean's puppy-dog eyes for Jade give away his real feelings to everyone but her, with Dean singing a "Pumped-Up" love song of sorts as he hilariously inflates a bed while brightly, robustly intoning to an absent Jade, "It's like I'm not even thinking straight, but when I'm just about to deflate, you pump me up."

Each of the other members of this cast leaves their special marks and memories, from the rich and resounding vocals of Jacqueline De Muro's Bernice to the twinkle-toe hilarity of Danny Scheie's Mort. Lucinda Hitchcock Cone's Vicki is a squirrel-loving ball of fun while Michael Patrick Gaffney plays multiple men on the prowl and in the sheets–some of whom don't wake up the next morning. Rinabeth Apostol (among other roles) is the nervous resident manager Cara, worried about the liability of having June around much longer.

If there is an aspect of this world premiere that may still need some post-production examination and editing, it is the rather long and detailed revelation by June of who is the sought culprit. Even with clever use of secretly filmed videos, the denouement drags on a bit too long.

Happy Pleasant Valley has indeed an overall "pleasant" if also a bit sterile and boring look that one might expect in a 55+ resident community, as wonderfully designed by Arnel Sancianco, with large set pieces quickly and seamlessly revealing interior apartments. Kurt Landsman's lighting design adds surrounding lines of colors in the walls, all-encompassing hues from blue to purple to capture moods, and even colorful polka-dots to make a senior disco dance come to life. Particularly inventive and fun are the side and overhead projections designed by David Lee Cuthbert (with content created by Tasi Alabastro) as online comments, emojis, and cartoon-like illustrations enrich the action and dialogue onstage. Finally, so much of the evening's fun (and sometimes surprises) are the result of the wide array of costumes designed by Jill C. Bowers, from squirrely embroidery to tight leather wear ready for a Castro night on the town.

So who did it? No hints here, but to find out how well June has been schooled by her mentor, Angela Lansbury's J. B. Fletcher, while laughing off your head watching raging senior sex hormones in full action, quickly grab a ticket for the world premiere Happy Pleasant Valley: A Senior Sex Scandal Murder Mystery Musical.

Happy Pleasant Valley: A Senior Sex Scandal Murder Mystery Musical runs through March 30, 2025, at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Road Palo Alto CA. For tickets and information, please visit theatreworks.org.