Fringe: Platinum

In 1978, Platinum, starring Alexis Smith, ran for a total of 45 performances. Reworked, the new version at the Fringe has five characters (down from 13) and some catchy songs, but the book is less than compelling. It's the 1970s and 40's movie star Lila is trying to make a comeback as a singer. Her recording engineer, who wants to be a songwriter, considers her hopelessly out of date. She needs many takes, for no particular reason. She gets angry and then does a good take. She meets a sexy almost-has-been rocker, and his girlfriend (or good friend?) steals her song (and makes a huge hit out of it). Lila gets involved with the rocker, who loves her old movies. It may be true love, or they may be using each other. Or both. The owner of the recording studio is a bad guy. Lila sells out the rocker but then changes her mind for no dramatized or sung reason. This description actually sounds more interesting than the show on stage, which manages to feel both wispy and heavy-handed. The 90 or so minutes pass pleasantly enough, mostly due to Donna Bullock's likeability as Lila, but Platinum is not a lost wonder waiting to be rediscovered.

Fringe: Alternative Methods

Can we call for a moratorium on black-and-white characters like "the rule-breaking private contractor" (Charlie Kevin) and the "yes-man doctor" (John Greenleaf) as they demonstrate what not to do? We need characters with some real intelligence and depth--not the accused Dr. Al-Badrani, who is so flatly and stereotypically portrayed by Alok Tewari that waterboarding seems like a viable option. There's a spark of a back-story given to rookie psychologist Susan Fulton (Julie Kline), enough to explain why she bonds with Al-Badrani and tries to subvert military conduct to free him, but that sort of illogical idealism belongs in Hollywood, which is fake enough to handle such things. The biggest disappointment in Alternative Methods is that it only provides more of the same.

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Fringe: Art of Attack

The somewhat tedious but well-written first hour is a stalemate between two estranged brothers: Kaz, who was blinded in an accident, needs his brother to help him train for a tournament; Sergei, who realized he was as addicted to the game as their dead grandmaster of a father, refuses to ever even look at a chess board again. Once the two set their repetitive arguments aside and actually play, adding color commentary and letting out all the nuances they (and director Joshua Kahan Brody) have been bottling up, the show comes together. If the first half of the play is reading up on intellectual strategy, the second half is all about the execution. It almost holds up, too--but playwright Asa Merritt overcommits to a second climax. The final scenes are confusing, with sexual tension added between Sergei and Kaz's now-slightly-crazed girlfriend Rose, and they undercut what's come before: it's the equivalent of continuing to play after losing one's king.

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Fringe: Richard 3

Let's get this out of the way. Richard 3 is misleadingly billed as a punk rock musical, but most of the music by Mike Fabano does not fit the punk description. Although there is a band onstage, the songs are often sung a cappella. This is not to say that the music, which has a haunting quality, doesn't fit the show, it does, but if I'm promised a punk rock Richard III, I want to see a punk rock Richard III.

James Presson's reimagining of Shakespeare's play takes place after World War III. The show actually owes a greater debt to Spring Awakening than American Idiot, by having characters speak Shakespeare's words and then using modern language when at the microphone.

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Fringe: William and the Tradesmen

If you want to spend an evening with Morrissey, Joe Strummer, and Paul Weller, look no further than William and the Tradesmen. All three are channeled to remarkable accuracy by Eli James, who also wrote the one-man show.

The three British musicians are Will Bray's idols. Will imagines them guiding him in his quest to be a successful musician, even though his band never shows up for gigs. James has a nerdy appeal as Bray and his Morrissey is particularly brilliant. The songs are well-written, but not so exceptional that you can't see why Will has never had his big break. As both a theater nerd and an Anglophile, I especially appreciated "The Second Song Is An I Want Song."

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Fringe: Hamlet Shut Up

                    HAMLET
...


                    OPHELIA
...


                    GERTRUDE
...


                    CLAUDIUS
...


                    And then everybody dies.

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