The Curse of the Mystic Renaldo The

Totally experimental, way out there, Art Rock Vaudeville. The Curse of the Mystic Renaldo The spends so much time trying to be different from everything else that I can't tell if it's actually good or just really quirky. After the multimedia faded into the background (about twenty minutes in), I started enjoying the performances; especially the musical numbers. It left no doubt in my mind that Aldo Perez is a very talented comic actor, that Jenny Lee Mitchell has an amazing voice, and that Richard Ginocchio has a hard time keeping a straight face, but it also left me in a state of perpetual disappointment. Just as I'd start to get into a segment--like Perez's bit as a singer/songwriter going on about a phone call he once made--it would skip to something weirder, and at times the show reminded me of Danny Elfman's cult film Forbidden Zone. At one point, Perez throws out the phrase tableau vivant, or "living picture," and that's an apt description for the work. Just know that the artists they like are the tortured ones, like Van Gogh, or the surrealists, like Escher and Dali (to whom the set designer is indebted, what with the ceiling-facing doors and slashed walls). Want to be weirded into laughter? Check out The Curse of the Mystic Renaldo The.

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