Alice In War

Shows at the Summer Play Festival aren't open for review, but I want to say a few things about this one anyway because it's a brand of ambitious and interesting that fans of the offbeat might want to check out this weekend. First, let me tell you that there were at least a dozen walkouts at intermission: this appropriation of Alice In Wonderland, which imagines a modern-day, curious little girl stepping into a topsy-turvy war zone beyond a hole in her wall, is not for everyone and it only sporadically delivers on its strong promise. But when it does deliver it's both smart and engaging for freshness-seeking playgoers. I had to chuckle when Alice, trapped inside a huge rabbit mask that she couldn't pry loose from her head, concluded that "two heads are not always better than one". I loved when she intruded on the historian/philosopher/gardener to ask for water. Annoyed to be distracted from his busy and important work of contemplating the random patterns of warfare, he reluctantly gives her his attention and eventually this great wisdom: she needs water. The scene in the second act, when Alice confronts the war machine, nails the kind of wry satire that I wish the play strived more for overall. Still, remembering that the shows at SPF are usually works-in-progress, this flawed one has enough bright flashes of wit and absurdity to make me hope it is further developed. Also in this production's favor: good low-budget visual design work, and a strong, alarmingly dead-on performance by Lisa Joyce as Alice.

33 To Nothing

Photo/Jaisen Crockett

Good news? 33 To Nothing is a solid, live show. Bad news? There's a play that comes with it, and much as that play fuels the music, it doesn't do much for what increasingly becomes dead time between the musical's eight numbers. It's also almost too realistic for the stage: without any theatricality, musicals often get a little odd: at least this one, which takes place in a rehearsal space, during a rehearsal, can get away with spontaneously bursting into song. Here, it's a way for the alcoholic front man to deal with his emotions: when pressed to talk about them, he sags back behind the safety of his keyboard and starts to play. If only the rest of the band had as much to do as he did, and if only they were all as good theatrically as they are musically. If I only I could just forget the "if" and just rock.

[Read on] [Also blogged by: Patrick] [David]

minor gods

I'm told that the first sold-out run at this year's Summer Play Festival was this two-hander, in which a genetic research scientist holes up in a hotel room with a rentboy (ker ching!) to discuss genetic predisposition and engineering. (Refund!)

The Magic of Mrs. Crowling

Over-the-top and waxing fantastical, Brian Silliman's parody of Pottermania is rough, riotous, and constantly funny. Abe Goldfarb's quick cuts between scenes keep the energy up, and the very different personalities of the deadpan Ramsey (Silliman); his son, the exuberantly dying Kicken (Paul Wyatt); and the doped-up writer, A. R. Crowling (Shelly Smith), are what make this show more than a series of (funny) one-liners from the peanut gallery of wizards (and critics): Dazzelin, Valiaare, and Charcana Charcane (Patrick Shearer, Dennis Hurley, and Ronica V. Reddick). Like the Harry Potter franchise, it's overlong and gets stuck in exposition a few too many times for its own good, but the good intentions and underlying charm make this show a successful send-up and a heartfelt homage to the imagination.

[Read on]

33 To Nothing

photo: Dale May

This downtown self-billed "play with music" centers on the self-absorbed front man in a failed aging rock band who is still holding on to the dream. Almost all his bandmates have to put it to rest already. He's either lashing out, or turning inward with unspoken desperation, or drinking away the pain. As portrayed with jagged anxietous energy by Grant James Varjas (also the playwright and co-songwriter) he's an often compelling character, in some respects not so far from the self-disgust of the protagonist in Talk Radio, but he's in search of a play. The other four characters in this one - including the most prominent, the guitarist ex-boyfriend - aren't written with the same depth and don't raise the dramatic stakes high enough. The passing moments of intervening challenge they provide to the main character's freefall aren't enough to keep the play (which takes place in real time at a band rehearsal) from feeling underdramatized. Whatever the structural weaknesses in his script, Varjas at least keeps things moving and knows when some levity is needed: some of the play's best moments are the band's idle conversations about other musicians. (Memorable quote: "Bowie's an ex-gay. He reneged on us!") And there is the band's music, most of it very good and all of it authentic. Perhaps the best way to enjoy 33 To Nothing is to see it as a concert crossed with a character study that hasn't quite found its groove as a play.

Also blogged by: [Aaron] [David]

Bloody Lies

Wrong title: Bloody Lies is Bloody Camp. I expected as much from a show billed as "Dracula Meets Monty Python," but was hoping that the release's reference to Joss Whedon would give Greg Machlin's script a little more substance than this. No; there's a great turn from Gabe Belyeu as the manic servant, Reinfield, and a nice, deeply enunciated, performance from his classically evil master, Count VonRichtenstein VII (Thomas Lash) but the emphasis of this show is on the twinned love stories of the "straight" guy Clem (Michael Buckley) and vampire Nina VonRichtensten (Elaine Matthews) and of Clem's mother, Elsie (Antonia Marrero), and her evil landlady Doris (Larry George). And I guess also on the bondage-based zombification of Clem's one-worded friend, Barney (Brian DeCaluwe) by the French Goth maid, Simparticus (Carrie Cimma), with a little bit of magic thrown in there by the phallic LSD (Liquid Sky Degenerator). When the plot finds time to focus, there are some comedic moments, but the whole thing is so overacted that it's little more than a series of shrill jokes and intermittent sound effects. To her credit, Samantha Shechtman does a fine job directing it, using repetitive, roundabout blocking to "stake" out familiar areas on the Workshop Theater's black-box stage.