Hell’s Kitchen

The Tony Awards will be awarded this weekend. Hell’s Kitchen has a bountiful thirteen nominations including Best Musical. Based on what I saw (along with two others), that hefty praise seems wildly generous. I love Alicia Keys so I presume her aura has enabled this show to be viewed through rose colored glasses. Our take was this show was somewhat mediocre on the whole.

Kristopher Diaz wrote the book for this loosely biographical tale of the making of a major pop superstar. She grew up in the then rough Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, fights with her mom, enters into some questionable relationships, has no father in her life and discovers her genius through a spiritual piano teacher guide.

There is a paint-by-numbers approach to this story which left me feeling that all the characters were fairly one dimensional. The story moves through these influential relationships but did not gel for me until we meet Miss Liza Jane. Kecia Lewis delivers the bravura performance which sparks Act One to life.

The second act was muddier to me. The long absentee father showing up at a funeral and becoming the center of the eulogy was a plot stretch I could not swallow. Squeezing Ms. Keys’ amazing hits into the storyline was sometimes too forced. Mom’s “Pawn It All” tirade makes absolutely no sense.

The direction (Michael Grief) and choreography (Camille A. Brown) were equally muddy. Ali (Maleah Joi Moon), the Alicia role, can be seen wandering through dances which looked odd. The ensemble meant to represent the hood stand around watching on tenement set pieces which seem to be trotted out at least every other year. Why are they watching? I’m still trying to figure that out from Lempicka so don’t ask me.

Performances in the show can be enjoyable and I totally bought the mother (Shoshana Bean) and daughter energy. There is just not enough depth here to make this musical stand out as more than a reason to use this music as a surface treatment of what is obviously a vastly deep and rich life experience.

The current Broadway season is a perfect time to make up your own mind about what you like. The critics and Tony nominators were head over heels in love with this one. The three of us saw a below average offering. No critic can destroy a song as powerful as “Girl on Fire” so there’s that indestructible defense!

Hell’s Kitchen dutifully follows the jukebox formula and ends with a rousing smash hit (cue last year’s New York, New York). “Empire State of Mind” is a great song indeed. Anthem level famous. That, to me, is not enough to be wowed after the jumble which preceded it. Rumors abound that this one will win Best Musical as it is being touted as the most commercial property for a national tour. Ah, the business of show!!!

Hell’s Kitchen is performing at the Shubert Theatre on Broadway.

www.hellskitchen.com

About This Reviewer - May 20, 2024

Death Becomes Her (Chicago)

Hit movies are turned into Broadway musicals regularly. Some are great (The Outsiders). Some are mildly entertaining (Back to the Future) and some are less so. Death Becomes Her, despite this week announcing its upcoming fall opening in New York, is not quite ready for the big time.

The Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis film was a major hit and won an Academy Award for special effects. That imagery is what I remembered from the film. Surprisingly some of that silly fun is captured here, most notably in a slow motion staircase tumble. Unfortunately there are long stretches of boring in between.

Marco Pennette’s book seems to follow the movie plot and does have some terrifically bitchy zingers. Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard, two proven stage actresses, take up the mantel of the warring over-the-hill actress and her meek writer frenemy. They compete for the love of plastic surgeon Ernest Menville (Christopher Sieber, another top tier musical comedy specialist). Shenanigans ensue as the rivals battle each other until the show ends with a very flat tire. In truth it was like watching a slow leak.

I cannot say that the score of this show is particularly memorable although Mr. Sieber clearly has the best number. The staging of his big moment is whimsical and enchanting so it stands out. In general, however, the show plods along under Christopher Gattelli’s lukewarm staging. Zany is promised but seldom achieved. You can see the strain.

It certainly does not help that the two leads wear costumes that absolutely swallow them whole. Paul Tazewell obviously designed them to be outsized. Unfortunately you can see the effort it takes to move in them. This satiric black comedy needs to be screamingly over-the-top to work. Here the jokes land sometimes and the songs even less frequently.

Why did this show need a musical version? Perhaps the Side Show 11:00 number homage sung by the two women side by side? I have seen both of these women kill on stage; Ms. Hilty stopping the show cold in Gentleman Prefer Blondes and Ms. Simard chewing the scenery most recently in Once Upon A One More Time. They give it their all but the core is a bit flimsy and perhaps too concerned with storytelling rather than buffoonery.

The biggest shortfall, however, is the character of Viola Van Horn played by Michelle Williams of Destiny’s Child fame. This is the character who promises eternal life via a magic potion. There is absolutely no character created so any campy fun is completely extinguished by a performance which faces the audience blankly and sings as if in concert. The discomfort of her being carried overhead by ensemble members was noticeable. Why is this in the choreography?

There are moments here and there to enjoy. Some ballroom dances look good but do they make sense? Death Becomes Her may be suffering from only one person directing and choreographing the production. If this material is going places, some rewrites and rethinks are advisable. These three actors have the chops. Give them even more bloody revenge (and vicious tongue lashings) to sink their teeth into. There might then be a show which savages our all too recognizable world of distorted Botox faces and garish chipmunk cheeks. We certainly can – and want to – laugh at that.

Death Becomes Her is playing in Chicago at the Cadillac Palace Theatre through June 2, 2024. Broadway previews are scheduled to begin October 23rd.

www.deathbecomesher.com

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About This Reviewer - May 16, 2024

On the Twentieth Century (Blank Theatre Company, Chicago)

“Life and love and luck may be changed / Hope renewed and fate rearranged”. That’s the promise contained in the title track of 1978’s On the Twentieth Century, a grand old school musical comedy. I was fortunately in Chicago this past week and decided to pop in to one of my favorite shows visiting a company I had not yet seen before.

The pedigree of this show is impressive (and I wrote about it six years ago in my Retrospective Series). Three of us headed to the Andersonville neighborhood and the welcoming venue of the Bramble Arts Loft to jump aboard this Art Deco masterpiece to “ride that mighty miracle of engineering trains”.

How would this modestly sized, non-equity theater company manage to sing this fairly difficult score with its oversized operetta-like bombast? Happy to report that this cast was completely up to that task. The band led by Musical Director Aaron Kaplan nicely performed the memorable train-rollicking score.

The staging occurs in a small black box theater within the Loft complex. I was drawn to see how this behemoth of a musical could be staged on a smaller scale. I’ve seen this show five times on Broadway (twice in its original run) and my memories of the “She’s A Nut” still rank high for its jaw-dropping set design.

The good news is that the enterprising Blank Theatre Company makes a case for downsizing this farce and allowing the madcap hijinks to shine up close and personal. Using suitcases and trunks set the tone and framed the location nicely. Movable chairs here and there were the other major props (although a few more would be welcome).

Since one of us was a newbie to 20th Century (and two were musical theater actors), we had some lively discussion during intermission and afterwards. Given the minimalist staging by Director Danny Kapinos, could the story be understood?

The answer is not always. An example is the duet between Lily Garland’s (Karilyn Veres) two self-absorbed suitors Oscar Jaffe (Maxwell J DeTogne) and Bruce Granit (Christopher Johnson). They are singing “Mine” in competition with each other in adjoining drawing rooms on the train. There is no way to clearly see that in this “buddy song” presentation. The side by side train rooms “A” and “B” are not delineated strongly enough and the song loses bit of its witty bite when less aggressively competitive.

In addition to the occasionally hazy locales, the show hurtles through its plot at breakneck speed. That is understandable given the storyline lunacy. All three of us felt the show could slow down a minute here and there to breathe and let the comedic shenanigans sink in even further. Movement on stage, especially down front, was a bit hectic. “Babette” was far too rushed to land its “gin is never strong enough” asides.

Our unanimously favorite performance was by Nick Arceo as Oliver Webb, one of Oscar Jaffe’s alcoholic henchmen. Alicia Berneche had a blast stopping the show in her character’s “Repent” classic. Everyone had their moments, however, and the ensemble in particular worked as if three times their number.

Now for the great news. A top ticket price of $35 guarantees exceptional value. Here is a chance to pop into one of the last American book musicals of the era prior to the British invasion of kicking felines and falling chandeliers. For my money On the Twentieth Century is a luxury liner train ride worth taking. The ambitious Blank Theatre Company makes a good case for a smaller scale interpretation in this most intimate setting.

All aboard! On the Twentieth Century is running through June 9, 2024.

www.blanktheatrecompany.org

www.brambletheatre.org/arts-loft

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About This Reviewer - April 29, 2024

An Enemy of the People

The water is poisoned but the government authorities bury the story. Is this play set in Flint, Michigan? The media conspire to subdue truths and broadcast alternative facts. Is this play about the conservative conspiracy peddlers like the Sandy Hook deniers? A scientist is figuratively crucified for expressing facts which do not fit the desired political narrative? Is this play about Dr. Fauci and Covid? No. An Enemy of the People was written in 1882.

I have seen Ibsen’s play before and decided to revisit it again when I saw that Amy Herzog (4,000 Miles, The Great God Pan) did a new translation. Her work on the Jessica Chastain led A Doll’s House last year was excellent. As in that production, the essence of the story is a meaty entree to be devoured. This one has the additional benefit of being uncannily relevant to today’s headlines.

Dr. Thomas Stockmann (Jeremy Strong from Succession) is a principled man who discovers his town’s water contains a potentially deadly bacteria. The town is famous as a spa destination. He wants his findings published in the local newspaper. More people will get sick and some will die. His brother (Michael Imperioli from The White Lotus) is an unscrupulous mayor who has other ideas and works his fake news magic.

I’ve seen this play before and it is a classic tale of hypocrisy. An uber principled, unwillingly to negotiate protagonist versus the ubiquitous political and financial power elite. How best to muffle the truth? Discredit him on social media tweets. Well that’s our way now. Back in 1882, a Town Hall mob is the method to publicly discredit and destroy.

And what a Town Hall this staging has. Circle in the Square is a perfect theater for this material. After intermission, the lights do not go down. The citizens assemble and we are them. Watch the easily flipped town leaders bury the inconvenient truth. Science on trial is a never ending theme. Do we have an exact count of how many imbeciles still believe the Earth is flat?

Mr. Strong is both understated and deeply committed in an excellent performance. Is the Doctor 100% accurate in his assessment of the situation? Are his platitudes over-the-top? Could he or should he negotiate a middle ground? That might be hard but the suggestion is floated. His inky, slinky brother is a very competent adversary, however. Mr. Imperioli exudes the trappings of privilege, self-promotion and greed as a memorable villain from yesterday and as a mirror to today’s powerful creeps.

Director Sam Gold has staged a tightly wound drama where everyone is forced to pick a side. Doesn’t that also sound familiar? Special kudos to Dots for their peek under the covers scenic design which, by play’s end, brilliantly depicts the destructive ramifications of political warfare. We surround an intimate family home and witness it torn apart by a world, both then and now, without a moral compass. This revival of An Enemy of the People is both timely and terrific.

An Enemy of the People has performances scheduled through June 23, 2024.

www.anenemyofthepeopleplay.com

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About This Reviewer - April 27, 2024

The Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy (South Bend, IN)

A macabre evening is promised featuring works from the master of of the genre. The Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy is a “chilling cocktail experience” dedicated to celebrating his style and literary works. This interesting entertainment is currently traveling the United States visiting many cities. I happened to catch this one during a weekend of performances in South Bend.

The show consists of a little Poe history care of an emcee. Two actors also perform four pieces: The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, Masque of the Red Death and The Black Cat. Each segment is paired with a cocktail. Hence the Nevermore beverage denoted by “quoth the raven, drink some more”. The cocktails were surprisingly decent and nicely varied.

The overall concept is good one. Experiencing these short stories as interpretive monologues with appropriate mood settings is a easy way to reconnect with these famous stories. The performers here were giving their all, sometimes leaning on excessive emoting which can be fun but also suggests an acting competition gone bloody mad.

There is a definitely a built in audience for this. I caught the final show of a three day weekend schedule. My tickets were for the 10:00 pm frightfest and the ghouls were out. Quite a few fans were dripping in gothic inspired garb. This was the third show of the night and all of them seemed to be sold out (about 300 or so guests).

I enjoyed the Tell-Tale Heart and Black Cat best of all. The venue here was generic church rent-a-space but it still worked well enough. Imagine a real speakeasy environment, even better staging and some crisp direction. This widely appealing idea could become a great diversion for a enticingly themed, grim and grisly night out.

I am certainly moving my unread copy of The Complete Tales of Edgar Allan Poe to the front of my summer reading list. He is just so creepy and good, dismemberments and all.

Tickets are being sold for The Edgar Allan Poe Speakeasy through June 14, 2024 in many cities around the US.

www.edgarallanpoebar.com

About This Reviewer - April 26, 2024

Mother Play

I’ve been to Leisure World in Maryland. I know exactly the place where Phyllis will plop on her long rambling journey through life. Paula Vogel’s surface level Mother Play gives us another miserable boozehound to watch devour the souls of her children.

Subtitled “a play in five evictions” provides all the clues one needs to know where this family drama is headed. Martha (Celia Keenan-Bolger) and Carl (Jim Parsons) seem to be clever nerdy children when the play opens in 1964. They seem loosely bonded to their mother’s unsteady orbit like buzzing electrons barely clinging to mom’s unstable isotope. Books are an escape in between making mom cocktails.

Right up front we hear that there’s a season for packing and a season for unpacking. This one act play will follow this family as they age from 1964 to the 21st century. The young ones will face faint praise occasionally and brutal criticism more commonly. In between there will be evictions as their situation worsens. The divorce took its toll. Mom is a self-absorbed caricature who, frankly, regrets having her children.

That material is catnip for me and I complete relate to this dysfunctional family scenario. Why, then, did this work come across as so utterly devoid of emotion? Jessica Lange is a recognizable mean old drunk if a tad glamorous. This persona has been seen before so some new shadings or revelations might have made this play or this character say something new. Instead we watch a rerun. It’s not bad; just bland.

Both kids, as is telegraphed early on, turn out to be gay. Mom had hoped for at least one normal child. The tensions and separations occur as expected. The 1980s also happen. Mom isolates herself after years and years of abusing her people. A lonely TV dinner is the heavy symbolism employed. That silent scene is really long and boring.

Mr. Parsons is a witty bon vivant before his eventual explosion, extraction and attempts at self-preservation. The heart of this play is the daughter played by Ms. Keenan-Bolger. The role functions as the narrator of this oft-told tale in which, sadly, many of us can see parallels to our own lives. Will there be resolution and forgiveness at the end? Should there be? Without any emotional core to grasp onto I simply didn’t care much.

Second Stage is presenting Mother Play at the Hayes Theater on Broadway through June 16, 2024.

www.2st.com

About This Reviewer - April 25, 2024

Uncle Vanya

Many versions of Anton Chekhov’s 1897 play have been staged as written and in adaptations. Two of my more recent takes were Christopher Durang’s hilarious Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike and a witty off-Broadway gem Life Sucks. Heidi Schreck (What the Constitution Means To Me) has provide this new version of Uncle Vanya. This one is a hard pass.

All of the angst is present. A few baubles for your pleasure. “Why does the sound of my voice sound so unpleasant to you?” Uncle Vanya is “so mad at myself for pissing away all that time in my life”. He comments that it’s “nice weather for hanging yourself”. One more you ask? “Why do we get drunk?” The answer is “so I can pretend to be alive”.

In the right production these amusing asides could entertain. Lila Neugebauer is a theater director I have greatly admired for The Wolves, Appropriate, The Antipodes and Miles for Mary to name a few. The misfire here, therefore, is fairly shocking. I do not believe I am alone in that opinion as the number of intermission walkouts were noticeable.

The cast is marooned on distant locations across a vast stage at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater. The pace of the direction is very, very slow as if the previous line had to traverse the void and be heard by another character. I presume the tempo is supposed to amp up the droll angsty humor but everything just came across flat and, frankly, quite boring.

Two actors manage to shine. Alison Pill is always a treat to watch and her unrequited love for Astrov (William Jackson Harper) is painfully real. Their scene together is the high point of the play by far. Interactions between everyone else seem less interesting. While believability might not be a goal, there needs to be some emotional connection to the plot machinations transpiring.

Steve Carell is making his Broadway debut as Uncle Vanya. The part promises a good fit but the gloom and doom guy does not have enough dimensions here for us to care or even laugh in recognition. At the end of the play he notes “my suffering is at an end finally”. We feel it too, unfortunately.

Uncle Vanya is playing at the Vivian Beaumont Theater through June 16, 2024.

www.vanyabroadway.com

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About This Reviewer - April 24, 2024

Mary Jane

Depending where you sit, the hospital bed can be seen from the living room. Today’s immediate crisis involves the plumbing and the building’s Super is working through the commonplace problem. The world of Mary Jane is much like everyone’s but with the added reality of a very ill child who needs round the clock care.

The heartbreak and self-sacrifice of motherhood is a key theme explored in this quietly devastating drama. Nurses are ever present in this home. Mary Jane will interact with four women in the two halves of this play. Each brings perspective from a different point of view. Feelings are explored with gentle compassion. We come to grips with mom’s surprising and impressively sunny demeanor.

Good natured Mary Jane counsels another mom who is just beginning to deal with her own similar circumstance. Ideas learned from caring for her own son are casually tossed off as if a recipe. Our peek into her seemingly unclouded world foreshadows pain ahead.

The riveting center of this beautifully constructed story involves two mothers sitting at a table in the hospital. Susan Pourfar’s Chaya is a Jewish Orthodox woman dealing with her own child’s health issues. These two mothers converse having just met but the intersection illuminates a shared humanity. The scene is breathtaking for its simplicity and its realness.

Academy Award nominee Rachel McAdams (Spotlight) plays the title character and she is excellent. There is no hysterical moment for Mary Jane. Life is a slow burn to be managed. Her pain is barely evident underneath the dutiful exterior. A visit from a hospital chaplain will allow her and us to ponder a spiritual view.

Anne Kauffman directed this soft-spoken masterwork in which we eavesdrop on what could have been a movie-of-the-week tale. Instead, unconnected scenes from life unfold and we witness the never ending cycle of a parental burden which overtakes their lives. The pain is understandable and possibly even recognizable. That doesn’t make it hurt less or give undue hopefulness.

In the first scene the Super (Brenda Wehle) remarks that the apartment’s window guards are missing which is illegal. Mary Jane took them off so her son could see outside since he cannot often go there. This play is much like that little side conversation. Playwright Amy Herzog has taken the safety bars down so we can peer into this world without manufactured barriers. The result is a nuanced heartbreaker filled to the brim with both love and sadness.

Performances for Mary Jane are scheduled through June 2, 2024 at the Manhattan Theatre Club’s Samuel J. Friedman’s Broadway theater.

www.manhattantheatreclub.com

About This Reviewer - April 23, 2024

Patriots

The rise of Vladimir Putin is the history being recounted in the always interesting yet slightly overbaked Patriots. As an analysis on the corruptive forces that come with power, this intricately plotted exposé is a juicy political soap opera. The production features technological flourishes which are both visually cool and effectively menacing.

Boris Berezovsky is the puppeteer in this potboiler. The oligarchs operating in post-USSR are driving up their portfolios in a country where people are struggling economically. Boris Yeltsin is a buffoonish clown (hilariously portrayed by Paul Kynman). Greed is good seems to be the motivator. The government needs to get out of the way. A cynic might sense a wild swipe at capitalism and the West here as giant personal yachts are a connective desire no matter where the riches are hoarded.

Mr. Berezovsky finds a low ranking, politically unknown deputy and elevates his stature. Putin is sure to do what he is told. As we all know, however, that man has different ideas. The evolution of this relationship and its inevitable power shift is the meat and potatoes of this play.

There is no attempt to gloss over the ruthlessness of businessmen in the wild west that is the 1990s era post-Communist oligarchy. Nor is there any attempt to sanitize the violent tendencies of Vladimir Putin’s rule. The battle for control is real and palpable tension is created. The puppet master fails to maintain control of his so-called puppet. Major events unfold and power is wrested. Our current world is the end result.

There is a theory posited in Peter Morgan’s incisive yet sometime unfocused play. Perhaps the “West” is also to blame for the rise of this textbook authoritarian. Why was Russia told to get in line to join NATO behind far smaller countries? We know how thin skinned wannabe dictators can be, just look at our American version(s). Did the West miss an opportunity to send the world on a different, perhaps better, trajectory?

That tidbit is a little sidebar in this overall well-staged drama. The play covers ground that many will know. Details colorfully fill in the blanks. Rupert Gold’s direction keeps the quickly moving action clear. Minor set and lighting changes along with striking wall projections set the locations. When Mr. Putin sits at his desk on a mostly empty stage there is a real sense of how significantly powerful he has become.

Will Keen’s portrayal of Putin is riveting. From chip-on-the-shoulder bureaucrat to murderous thug, Mr. Keen’s sinister intensity makes one’s blood curl. This is villain as phoenix rising from the chaos of an impotent government and its economic missteps. The play gives enough background to make this ascension understandable. Indirectly we wonder if this is the model being followed by others with similar needs for unchecked power in modern day monarchies.

Luke Thallon plays Roman Abramovich, a lesser oligarch who befriends Berezovski on his way up the food chain. His ability to recognize and benefit from shifting winds provides another view into the political process. Nothing is about morality despite the pretenses on display. The driving force is strategic alignment with the eventual and unchallengeable winner. Mr. Thallon is excellent in this role, perhaps realistically evolving more than any other character.

Michael Stuhlbarg is a huge presence in the leading role of Boris Berezovsky. This larger than life person flails all over the place awash in their ego. Success has created an insufferable maniac who is overly sure of his abilities and alliances. I found Mr. Stuhlbarg’s performance to be a bit too broad if very entertaining. His expansiveness colored the person with bold brushstrokes but sometimes the excesses seemed like acting with a capital A.

Patriots has a very large cast and there are meaningful smaller roles and scenes which paint the overall picture without unneeded exposition. This play can be recommended for those who want to immerse themselves in a drama where moral degeneracy meets political power. That we are still in this era while considering how we got here is the real gift of this play.

Patriots is running on Broadway at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre through June 23, 2024.

www.patriotsbroadway.com

About This Reviewer - April 22, 2024

Fanatical Optimism & Joy Ride (NYC Fringe, Part 6)

New York City Fringe (formally the FRIGID Fringe Festival) is an open, lottery-based theater festival that gives artists an opportunity to let their ingenuity thrive in an environment that values freedom of expression and artistic determination. In true support of the Indie Theater Community, 100% of box office proceeds go directly to the artists whose work is being presented.

Fanatical Optimism

“Welcome to the land of debris and the home of decay”. The title of Adam LeBow’s extremely detailed rant Fanatical Optimism might seem incongruous with his material. Climate change, defense spending, AI, racism, cultural appropriation, “Ronald fucking Reagan”, corporate greed, religion and drag queens are some of the many hot buttons pressed. I would love to see this show taped and watched by families during holiday get togethers. Discussion would most certainly ensue.

For those with open eyes and ears, much of the territory covered will be sadly familiar. “Nukes are back!” America is consumed by the “same old tired imperial proxy war circus”. Our economy based on “vast profit accumulation and wage suppression” is labeled “inflation”. Revoking the Fairness Doctrine enabling broadcast media to stop presenting alternative points of view.

Artificial Intelligence is likened to the human race having bought the farm, sung Old MacDonald style: “AI, AI, oh”. The threat is our complacency. We are letting AI take all of our jobs. Cue Arnold Schwarzenegger jokes. The problem is dauntingly large. Mr. LeBow’s worries about “millions of unemployed people scared and pissed off in a country awash in guns”.

Midway through this tirade is a section where a long list of everything that’s worrisome is belched in an extraordinary summation. It made me ill but I wanted to have a copy of the list because it felt so complete. I have to say that I don’t necessary see all of the connections made and agree with every position taken (i.e., the influence of Gordon Gecko). That doesn’t matter. He ended a jaw dropping end-of-the-world list with “Beyoncé made a country album”. There is some funny in here to keep us from jumping off the bridge.

Fanatical Optimism looks inward as well. That strengthens the show and gives us all a chance to consider our individual arcs in conjunction with the changes around us. People born in the 1960s were the beneficiaries of social, political and cultural currents. Their soil was planted hearing songs which said “a child is black / a child is white / together they grow to see the light”. Today the Bible is used to “subjugate the threatening other”.

The material here is heavy stuff and points to the “rancid, reeking, sewage sludge we are all dealing with”. Mr. LeBow references “all the stuff I’ve talked about and what I haven’t”. What could possibly be missing? He does attempt to end these proceedings on a happy note so that his show won’t be called depressing and “be banished from the cultural landscape”.

Is there a path forward to address the “impotent rage of a dying aristocracy?” He asks “How much would we do to save the world?” We are people who “lose our shit when we can’t get Wi-Fi” so the disheartening conclusion is “probably not much”. This polemic is packed full of anger and told by a smiling Boomer/Gen X hybrid who wields a large smile and a heavy heart.

Joy Ride

A 2006 Toyota Sienna minivan with a “super high tech” six CD spinner is the setting for a family Joy Ride. Meredith Brandt’s one woman show recounts personal stories using song parodies from tunes she heard over and over again. Apparently the discs were “stuck” in the player so they were fully implanted in the brain.

The conceit is a winning one. A sleepover in first grade results in a desire to come home. “On My Own” from Les Misérables is rewritten as “Get Me Home”. The tone is light and the memories recalled are warmly presented.

A Barbra Streisand compilation Essential Babs provides the lyrical high point in this show. “Don’t Rain On My Parade is coopted while recounting her father’s driving. “Dad hits the gas vroom” made me laugh but the whole song is clever. Joy Ride is pleasant enough because the idea is soundly developed. Adding in a Bonus Track was inspired. Some funnier lyrics in all the song parodies would sharpen and enhance the joy in this sweetly concocted ride.

The New York City Fringe concluded its run on April 21, 2024. This blog reviewed fourteen of the nearly four dozen works staged.