Cut to the Chase

It takes Cut to the Chase little under five minutes to do exactly that: hyperactive Dilly (Laura Dillman), clad in a bellhop's costume and armed with an infectious laugh, introduces the cast: Dobson (Mike Dobson), the dour drummer; The Great Jeske (Joel Jeske), the director; Julietta Massina (Juliet Jeske), the singing diva; Kasper (Ryan Kasprzak), the lovable scamp; Little Angela (Andrea Kehler), the annoying tease; and Roland Derek (Derek Roland), the lanky illusionist. In of itself, that's not impressive; however, this talented ensemble then continues to entertain both the young and the young at heart for the next hour in a mash of silent comedy and parodies of old song standards like "Shine on Harvest Moon." Mark Lonergan's direction seamlessly uses three farcically placed doors and a few sliding curtains to break out (among many many other things) a tap-triggered light show and a balloon-drumming exhibition. Great fun, for all ages.

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Scapin

What you're looking at above is the almost unbearably bright production of Scapin currently running at the Turtle's Shell Theater, and at Jay Painter (with guitar), the man who is running off with the show. You'll laugh hysterically at the over-the-top antics to be found in this production, but it's hardly Moliere's Scapin anymore (though even he couldn't write all that much clever into this straightforward farce), it's Scapin! with an exclamation point. The problem the show faces is that Painter makes all the other actors look sluggish, so unless he's on stage (a tricky challenge, since he mainly plays pre-show and mid-show entertainment along with being a porter), Shawn Rozsa's direction seems pretty flat. There are some nice moments, particularly from John Freimann's pitiable Geronte (one of the two misers Scapin tricks out of their money -- for the sake of their sons!), but the glass of this scatterbrained production seems half-empty all too often.

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Is He Dead?

***1/2

Lyceum

It's all about Norbert Leo Butz in a dress. In this darling, recently discovered Mark Twain farce about an artist who fakes his own death to drive up his prices, the audience waits patiently for Butz to make his grand begowned entrance and once he does there were guffaws-a-plenty. Like Milton Berle or Jack Lemmon in Some Like It Hot we have the art of bad drag on display and Butz was milking it to hysterical effect. Adjusting one's package in an enormous post civil war gown? Come on, it's funny! No, there are no shattering revelations in this play- other than the fact that Mark Twain wrote a farce- but it turned out to be a lot of simple fun and it seems like something I can take my suburban Methodist parents to when they visit in February.

Edward the Second

Photo/Brian Dilg

Edward the Second is another notch in the belt for Jesse Berger and his Red Bull Theater company. Christopher Marlowe's text, as adapted by Garland Wright, now takes play in an anachronistic time of gay night clubs and gramophones, a world that stresses the characters rather than the themes, and places no judgment on the page, but simply gives it flesh -- erotic, teasing, half-shadowed flesh. Edward II (Marc Vietor) all but abandons his country for the love of his friend Galveston (Kenajuan Bentley), and pays the price for such reckless behavior, as his court, led by Mortimer (a frightening Matthew Rauch), rises up and seize control. The set, from John Arnone, comes across as a modeling runway (only missteps there will lead to more than humiliation), and Clint Ramos's lush costumes keep the play poised at the height of fashion, both of which give Berger's bits of lightly shadowed nudity or blood and grime more contrast. In all, this is a very moving production, and one which doesn't (as befits fashion) show its age.

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The Puppetmaster of Lodz

Photo/Jim Baldassare

Admit it; if you'd been forced to burn your wife's body in a concentration camp then somehow managed to escape back to "civilization" and an apartment, to gather what money and resources you had around you -- you'd lock the world out too, wouldn't you? Well, that's what Finklebaum (a stunning Robert Zukerman) has done in The Puppetmaster of Lodz, and though his concierge (Suzanne Toren) might try to convince him to come out -- it's 1950 and the war is long gone -- bringing Russian, American, and Hebrew men off the street (Daniel Damiano) to help her argument, he knows too well the high cost of trust. Ironically, there are a few good twists in this play that suggest not only might he be right to remain suspicious, but others might do well to be suspicious of him. The play spends its time switching between the friendly wolves at his door and Finklebaum's attempts to wrap himself ever tighter in a web of imagination. But try as he might to rewrite the story, he is too logical, too intelligent to lose himself for good (though he may talk to a life-sized puppet, he's no dummy), and that's perhaps the greatest tragedy of all. I'm engaged by the clever arguments between the Outside and Finklebaum (which grow increasingly bleak as his imagination goes to work), but also by Zukerman's own performance -- although he's clearly not a talented puppetmaster, he shares his character's convictions, and believes so much that the audience cannot help but stare on in fascination and sorrow.

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Beckett Shorts

Photo/Joan Marcus

After watching JoAnne Akalaitis's remarkably smooth, clear, and precise production of Beckett Shorts, you'll know if you like Samuel Beckett or not. In four broodingly comic meditations, the human condition is fully explored: whistled into life ("Act Without Words I"), goaded into action ("Act Without Words II"), thrown together in the wilderness ("Rough For Theater I"), and abandoned to one's imagination ("Eh Joe"). These pieces are largely physical ones (which plays to the strength of the centerpiece, Mikhail Baryshnikov), but that also makes them highly accessible, with clear-cut actions, needs, and failures. They're also well supported by Alexander Brodsky's set -- playful sandbox or apocalyptic desert -- and Philip Glass's haunting interludes. There are also great performances by the marvelous Bill Camp and Karen Kandel, serious actors who give Beckett's words the somber bounce that they need. For a showcase that's only seventy minutes long, this is a full-bodied (and fully recommended) performance, if for nothing other than the serious exposure to Beckett done well.

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