High School Musical

photo: Joan Marcus

Big sound system problems brought the curtain down and the house lights up about forty five minutes into the first act. I hear that they were able to get things together almost an hour later, but by then we were already over it and determined to get out of Philly on schedule. Is it fair or unfair to comment on what I did see of this touring stage adaptation of Disney Channel's extraoridnarily popular tv movie musical? I don't know, but I will say that it didn't reach me at all, even in the third row: it felt like an expensive version of one of those shows you file into at a theme park to get a break from the rides. Big, broad, bland.

The People vs. Mona

Photo/Randy Morrison

The People vs. Mona is about as plausible as an episode of Perry Mason, but (a) that's what it was styled after and (b) this one's an endearing, bluesy musical. If you're watching a musical, your belief is already pretty well suspended, so settle back in your seat and enjoy the lively tunes and livelier characters that Jim Wann and Patricia Miller are interrogating for tonight's entertainment. The plot's more elaborate than the set or costume changes, all of which happen in the middle of the action, so your focus is never distracted from the ensemble: there's the operatic Officer Bell (David Jon Wilson) and the sultry Tish Thomas (Marcie Henderson); over there's our cheerful Indian motel owner, Patel (Omri Schein), and in another corner, our take-no-sass judge, Ella Jordan (Natalie Douglas). The three leads, our defense, prosecutor, and defendant (Richard Binder, Karen Culp, and Mariand Torres) are also great singers, but they're actually a bit too normal in the context of this self-satirizing show. But that's no reason to dismiss this case: The People vs. Mona is a grand ole time.

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Lower Ninth

One of the four offerings during the Summer Play Festival's first week, Lower Ninth crackles with good dialogue as it depicts two men waiting on a rooftop to be rescued from a devastating flood. The dead body of a friend, pulled from the polluted water, lies at their feet: a reminder that rescue may come too late. Since SPF plays are not meant to be open for review, I'm only going to say that the writing here shows promise, and that after another pass to strengthen the play's thematic content, I could see that this play would merit a subsequent production.

What Do Men Want?

Two one-acts at the Fresh Fruits Festival. The first is a monologue callled Lay Me Down And Love Me Again and the less I say about it the better; I confess that I had no idea what brand of humor it was aiming for. The second, a cute forty five minute satirical chuckle called The Naked Dead Elephant In The Middle Of The Room, lightheartedly spoofs the typical gay play. The conceit is vaguely [title of show]ish, as a playwright at a laptop sweats out the play that we are watching, leading here to a lot of fun, if usually predictable, play-within-a-play business (I laughed the hardest at the successive, increasingly silly on-the-spot revisions of the obligatory sex scene). An especially cranky and verbose theatre critic character is the one-act's crowdpleasing running gag - he periodically pops in to complain about the play thus far - and there's even a small bit when an audience member is cajoled to make a cameo. Unfortunately I lost the insert in my program and can't single out any of the actors, but all four are fun and bring the right spirit to the material.

Universal Robots

Mac Rogers has upgraded Karel Capek's R.U.R. by installing Capek himself into the new show, appropriately titled Universal Robots. The strong storytelling and superb acting (especially from the ridiculously robotic Jason Howard) make the play at least as good as Capek's original, but it's the freshly updated emotional core that makes this a much-needed overhaul. The two plays are really only the same at face-value: both are about robot drudges who eventually evolve beyond humans ("You say unnecessary things") only to find that in replacing them, they become them. However, Rogers' script has added drama from the brother-sister relationship between Karel and Jo, and also between the eccentric Rossum and her sheltered and lovestruck daughter, Helena. Also, by adding a narrator, Rogers is able to play tricks with the progression of scenes, not to mention the insertion of monologued asides that flesh out the world and show off the ensemble.

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Forbidden Broadway: The Roast Of Utopia

photo: Carol Rosegg

This "special summer edition" of the long running, ever-changing spoof revue is hit and miss, as it usually is, but at least the show feels fresher than usual at the moment with an especially appealing current cast and several new skits in the mix. The Company send-up is easily the best of the what's fresh - "No strings/No bass/No drums/Unaccompanied!" - and features James Donegan doing a dead-on Raul Esparza "Being Alive" parody (now called "Being Intense"). There's a decent Grey Gardens number and a Mary Poppins bit that mocks, what else, the Disneyfication of Broadway. The revised Hairspray skit picks up near its finish when John Travolta is lambasted - that's getting a welcome jump on things, as the movie isn't out until late next week. Another big plus is that the terrificly funny Les Miserables parodies are back, thanks to the currently-running revival: those spoofs are among the all-time best of Forbidden Broadway's twenty four years. The bad news is that a couple of new skits I was eagerly looking forward to are duds - the Drowsy Chaperone number just, um, sits there witlessly, and while the Spring Awakening spoof looks great, it doesn't have any bite: it seems more like an advertisement than a skewering. And I wonder....why is there still no Spelling Bee?