Fringe: Evan O'Television in Double Negatives

Evan O'Sullivan calls his act "conceptual comedy," and the televised version of himself--his partner--jokes that "if we called it performance art, nobody would come." When the two are in sync--or deliberately out of it, as with one gag--Double Negatives is delightful: it's self-self-deprecating humor. (Consider one skit in which the televised Evan plays a therapist who is attempting to treat the live Evan's psychotic habit of "talking to himself.") Entertaining as this "renowned one-man duo" is at first (O'Sullivan's mirthful similarity to Modern Family's Eric Stonestreet doesn't hurt), the gimmick exhausts itself after a half-hour. It doesn't help that "both" actors are the straight man and that the live Evan often has to mumble extra text to stay on cue--the show needs some fine tuning (pardon the pun).

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Fringe: The Beatitudes

The final performance of Eidolon Ballet's The Beatitudes is tonight at 8 p.m. at Dixon Place. I recommend trying to make room for it in your Fringe schedule. At only 35 minutes, it can easily fit in between two other shows.

The dance piece begins with Ray (Jerry "Chip" Scuderi) serving in WWII and follows his journey as he returns to New York, discovers the Beat Generation, heads west, and eventually returns home. The dance is set to jazz music as well as readings by Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. I don't claim to be a dance critic, but to these eyes, the dance set to spoken word is particularly engaging because it enhances the poetry of the language. The choreography by Melanie Cortier is lovely, if at times repetitive.

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FRINGE: Richard 3

                       KING RICHARD III
I am goth!  Look at my eye makeup!


                       ELIZABETH
I am also goth!  Look at everybody die!


                       EVERYBODY
When World War 3 is over, anybody who doesn't die will be
Goth!


                       CAST OF AMERICAN IDIOT
We'd complain that you stole our "thing", but you sing 
better than us.

[Read full review @ BroadwayAbridged]

Fringe: The Conveniences of Modern Living

Best not to dwell on the talking Dryer (Jessica Love)--it's enough that an innocent face simply peers out of that door with fabric softener sheets crinkled through her hair and a long slinky-pipe of an arm. Such imagery fits perfectly with the precocious poetry of ten-year-old Bobson (Zack Palomo), who is falling for his babysitter, Agnes (Maya Baldwin)--and not just in their make-believe games. It also saves Agnes's husband, Harold (Rory Sheridan), from having to explain exactly what he's doing on those late nights with the Dryer. The less it's acknowledged, the easier it is to accept that--following the loss of their child--this is just how things are. But as the play continues, it becomes self-aware of its absurdity, veering into a farcical and campy dinner scene with Bobson's horrible parents--the selfish and sniping Bettina (Tavia Trepte) and the drugged-out and arrogant Bernard (David Ian Lee)--and runs out of things to say.

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Fringe: Feed The Monster

Feed The Monster starts off strong when Rita Emerson (Stephanie Ehrlich) takes the stage to perform the title song by Ehrlich, who also wrote the show, and composer Jim Keyes. She channels a psychedelic rock goddess and for that moment, it feels as though we've been transported to the 70s, but unfortunately, the rest of the show is a little dull in comparison.

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Fringe: Get Rich Cheating

Like all good satire, comedian Jeff Kreisler's fake wealth-building seminar gets closer to the truth than the putative objects of its scorn. The form is a mockery of those "Rich Dad, Poor Dad"-type get-rich seminars that rely on role play, humor, catchphrases and revival-tent adrenaline to convince listeners that their lives and fortunes are really about to change. Kreisler's real targets, though, are the "cheaters" who amass wealth through exploitation and dishonesty—the Enrons and AIGs and politicans on the take, of course, but also the Sarah Palins of the world and even Barack Obama, who earns a gentle ribbing from this liberal comic for gaining the highest office in the land through the power of words.

Kreisler covers a lot of ground in this energetic hour. The premise is amusing, he's got the motivational speaker shtick pretty well down, and many of his zingers hit their targets. Through jokes he paints a grim picture of a world in which "your being is based upon your bling" and "people are stupid...they'll buy Apple products on the day they're released." By excoriating those easy corporate targets, he makes a little more palatable the deeper message that we're all complicit in this sad, dirty game.