black odyssey (Classic Stage Company)

Inspired by its Homeric influence, black odyssey is Marcus Gardley’s personal reimagination of this classic poem. His take focuses on his people, black Americans, rather than the ancient Greeks. Instead of beginning at the end of the Trojan War, he starts off after Ulysses Lincoln (Sean Boyce Johnson) serves in Afghanistan.

The gods are playing chess with these humans. The sea god renamed Paw Sidin (Jimonn Cole) is furious with Ulysses for killing his son in the war. On the other side of this match is Deus (James T. Alfred) who sends his wife Athena to watch over Ulysses’ family. Paralleling the original tale, Ulysses has to endure a long and perilous journey at sea when the war ended. His Harlem family fears he is dead.

There are many moments of seriousness and drama as one would expect. Amusements are scattered throughout this text as well. Athena is renamed Aunt Tee (Harriet D. Foy) in this version. Deus remarks that he should call her Minerva (the Roman god commonly associated with Athena) “because she works my nerves”. A playfulness imbues this production culminating in a surprisingly appealing musical interlude in the second act.

For this author the American dream is a nightmare “to keep me asleep and broke” adding “now I’m woke”. That word seems to be a lightning rod in today’s contentious society. Conservative leaders and media outlets practically froth at the mouth while ridiculing it as an evil to be destroyed. Here that word brings up-to-date a long arduous journey for a people who endured four hundred years of slavery and its omnipresent aftermath.

Mr. Gardley’s play loosely connects the Odyssey to the epic centuries of the black American experience. One intimate section finds Ulysses encountering a family stranded on a rooftop. Their house is surrounded by water. Surely the government is going to provide assistance. The appalling Katrina imagery your mind brings to this vividly staged scene cannot be denied.

The script contains an uncountable number of references. The people, places and things do underscore the epic nature of the storytelling. They are also tossed out and discarded quickly presumably to mimic the multitudinous details interwoven in the 12,109 lines from the classic poem.

Stevie Walker-Webb directed black odyssey. The performances are strong across the board. Visual tableaus command attention including the ingenious usages of the boat (Set Designer David Goldstein). The tension is palpable and the laughs are big. The play is a wild hodgepodge of ideas and Mr. Walker-Webb is up to the task just as he was with Ain’t No Mo’ this season. I look forward to what follows.

There is a cacophony of feverish debate (to be kind) about diversity in the arts these days. Inclusiveness often materializes as a deafening roar on social media. How to effectively “see” the broad colors of America. Just as important, if not more, is to “hear” perspectives from those whose epic journeys vary significantly from one’s own. Maybe then Ulysses won’t have to wonder why so many people “lose their minds” when they hear the phrase “Black Lives Matter”.

black odyssey is running at the Classic Stage Company through March 26, 2023.

www.classicstage.org

theaterreviewsfrommyseat/Ain’t No Mo’

About This Reviewer - March 17, 2023March 17, 2023

Parade

I missed the two month flash that was the original run of the musical Parade on Broadway in 1998. The show won Tony Awards for book writer Alfred Uhry (Driving Miss Daisy) and composer Jason Robert Brown (Bridges of Madison County, The Last Five Years). I remembered nothing about the show prior to enjoying this accomplished revival.

Parade recounts another dark chapter of racism in our country so revisiting the topic again remains sadly relevant. In 1913 a Jewish American was tried and imprisoned for the rape and murder of a thirteen year old girl. She was an employee at the pencil factory where he also worked. Leo Frank was a college educated man who relocated to Georgia from Brooklyn. His first song asks “How Can I Call This Home?”

The plot begins momentarily with soldiers heading off to the Civil War. Quickly the crime is committed and an investigation begins. This leads to a trial and incarceration. Detectives, prosecutors and politicians are outlined in broadly corrupt strokes.

Lucille Frank (Micaela Diamond) feverishly works to help prove her husband’s innocence. She and Leo (Ben Platt) prognosticate “This Is Not Over Yet”. While Parade is based on historical events, this section seems highly unlikely to be factually accurate. There is basis for the turn of events portrayed but the party crashing plotline is unbelievable.

Mr. Platt and, especially, Ms. Diamond have created deeply realized period characters with exceptionally realistic chemistry. They both sing this tuneful score beautifully. Musical theater fans can savor the Sondheim influence on Mr. Brown in Lucille’s song “Do It Alone”. Sunday In the Park With George is not hard to hear.

A huge talented cast lends fine support to the central couple. Michael Arden’s staging and direction effectively convey this uncomfortable tale on a deceptively simple set featuring a raised platform. Old photographs of these real people are projected on the back wall furthering the gravitas. Parade is an unusual musical for sure. This stellar and eerily dramatic production makes a very strong case that it is an important one as well.

Two groups emerged from this notorious moment in history. The defunct Ku Klux Klan was revived as a small group in Georgia in 1915 before flourishing more broadly thereafter. The birth of the Jewish Civil Rights organization, the Anti-Defamation League, was born. The parade of hatred so blatantly on view in today’s America clearly points toward an unclear crossroad into our future. Leo Frank’s case was reopened in 2019 and is still ongoing. America’s case is similarly unresolved.

Parade is running on Broadway through August 6, 2023.

www.paradebroadway.com

About This Reviewer - March 14, 2023March 14, 2023

Chicago

The current revival of Chicago opened on Broadway on November 14, 1996. No other American musical has lasted that long. I saw this show months after opening before Bebe Neuwirth took home a Tony for her Velma Kelly. I decided now was finally the time for a revisit. Why? Jinkx Monsoon.

Let’s begin with the pre-show energy in the theater. I’ve been to Broadway openings. Seen megastars in smash hits. The Ambassador Theatre that night was in rarified air. The atmosphere was electric and pulsating. When the lights came down and the orchestra began “All That Jazz” the audience roared. Literally roared. To say it was magical would be an understatement.

So how does a warhorse like Chicago hold up? Fred Ebb and John Kander’s score remains classic and brilliant, filled with memorable tunes. The cynicism of this story is still relevant. Chicago takes place in the 1920s and was first produced in the 1970s. Manipulating the press and self-serving obfuscation is our world today. The sarcasm in “Razzle Dazzle” is still fresh commentary. “Give them the old flim flam flummox / Fool and fracture ’em / How can they hear the truth above the roar?”

Did I have a great time at this show? Yes. First, how was Jinkx? Simply terrific as the prison Matron “Mama” Morton. Her entrance applause was deafening. Wasn’t it nice then to hear an expert rendition of “When You’re Good To Mama” and even higher heights achieved in the second act’s hilarious “Class”. I’ve seen Jinkx in The Vaudevillians off Broadway, on television in RuPaul’s Drag Race and also in the fantastic drag Christmas burlesque The Jinkx and DeLa Holiday Show. I knew the performance would be professional and seriously delivered, and it was.

Now for the other terrific news. Charlotte d’Amboise’s turn as Roxie Hart was exceptionally entertaining. Her “Roxie” number was truly a showstopper. As lawyer Billy Flynn, James T. Lane was excellent from his “we love Billy” entrance to his razzle dazzling all of us. R. Lowe has been playing Mary Sunshine for fifteen years and it’s a doozy.

Over and above that, Evan Harrington’s duped loser Amos Hart was stunning. I have never ever heard a better “Mister Cellophane”. When he is forced to leave the stage near the end of the show without exit music someone in the audience exclaimed “that’s terrible”. We all howled – and felt sad too.

The rest is a mixed bag with both good and mediocre sprinkled in. All of the “in the style of Bob Fosse” numbers are executed but my eyes were laser focused on certain performers who made you notice them. It did not help that I saw a preview of the upcoming revival of Bob Fosse’s Dancin’ the following evening. Every one of those dancers are eye-poppingly alive (with tremendously more complicated work to do). Routineness, unfortunately, tends to be the norm with longer runs despite their extremely high ticket prices.

Michael Scirrotto was a standout in his role as The Jury. Jessica Ernest (Go-To-Hell Kitty) was also eye-catching. Mary Claire King, however, stands alone as if Fosse himself discovered her. All four of us were mesmerized by her presence and dancing. If the whole show were at that level, this Chicago would be stratospheric. That said, the “Cell Block Tango” was particularly fine with Velma (Lana Gordon) and “the Girls”.

Chicago remains an extraordinary musical brimming with superlative songs. This production changes casts often, particularly the principle parts, in what is commonly referred to as stunt casting. I am thrilled I entered its orbit when a supernova exploded and a grand Broadway evening brightly dazzled.

Chicago will likely be running long after my time here on Earth has ended. Jinkx Monsoon will play Mama Morton until March 26, 2023 and then will be touring the universe in her upcoming extravaganza Everything At Stake beginning in June.

www.chicagothemusical.com

www,jinkxmonsoon.com/tour

About This Reviewer - March 13, 2023

Tennessee Rising: The Dawn of Tennessee Williams

The Glass Menagerie. A Streetcar Named Desire. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Just three in an awesome string of remarkable and still performed plays from indisputably one of the top American playwrights in the twentieth century. Tennessee Rising: The Dawn of Tennessee Williams dives into the period leading up to the triumphal success of Menagerie on Broadway.

Much is known about this man. This solo show opens with Tom (his given name) grabbing a bottle of liquor saying “look what I found”. Events, people and mental health are explored in a serious yet conversational way. Tennessee Rising links his formative experiences with the prodigious creative output which followed.

Writer Jacob Storms narrates this memory play as if audience members are invited guests to his parlor. Travels are recounted with witty asides. New Orleans is a “languorous Gomorrah”. Los Angeles features a “grotesque neon waterfall with plastic flowers poking out”. Regarding his upbringing: “a Saint Louis burial would be a fate worse than death”. The “kindness of strangers” is referred to multiple times.

Descriptive language is often interesting during this exploration of literary genius. Mr. Storms also introduces many relationships which later emerge as classic characters in his plays. Stanley Kowalski was a coworker at a shoe factory. A society dame from a party he attended was nicknamed Maggie the Cat. His sister’s fragility and mental illness informed Laura Wingfield and her menagerie.

The source references become a little overstuffed. On a beach Tennessee sees an iguana, presumably the visual which years and years later inspired Night of the Iguana. Much stronger than the one off notations, however, are the deeper dives into key early romantic relationships.

Events leading up to America’s participation in World War II are touched upon. While some of that material is familiar, there is a stinging accusation to American capitalists of industry who enabled Hitler. I recalled an Oscar nominated documentary called A Night at the Garden. This seven minute found footage was from a packed 1939 Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden. Americans eagerly signing up for authoritarianism. This sidebar felt a little off topic but nevertheless colors the period of Tennessee’s formative years.

Fans of juicy gossip will find mentions of Lana Turner, Joan Crawford and Tallulah Bankhead. Less familiar names such as the poet Hart Crane sent me googling to learn about his influences. There is a ton of material here – perhaps too much – so depth is sacrificed for inclusion.

Alan Cumming directed Mr. Storms. At first I was enjoying the suggestive lighting. The sunlight on the beach in Malibu. Darker hues at a mental institution. The effects became piled on too frequently and distracted such as multiple lightning effects. Visiting a table toward the back of the stage forced the performance away from the listener.

At its core, Tennessee Rising is a thought provoking study into the developing mind of a literary heavyweight. Listening to phrases like “familial treason” and “maternal jailer” succinctly capture the spirits which haunt Mr. Williams’ finest work. Fans of this playwright and those seeking a demonstrable connection between personal experience and its influence on the creative process will find much to consider here.

Tennessee Rising: The Dawn of Tennessee Williams is being performed on Sundays through April 2, 2023 in the very impressive newly restored AMT Theater.

www.amttheater.org

About This Reviewer - March 12, 2023

Washington Square (Axis Theatre)

If you have not ventured into an Off-Broadway theater in a while, there are some excellent options currently available. If you attend regularly try not to miss Washington Square from the Axis Theatre Company. The production is Grade A storytelling, acting, costuming, lighting and mood setting.

This play is a new adaptation of the 1880 Henry James novel which has been famously and frequently seen as The Heiress. I saw the Jessica Chastain Broadway version in 2012. Olivia de Haviland did the Oscar winning film. The story has topical appeal with its central themes of class, wealth and social status intertwined with women’s freedoms and personal happiness.

One aspect which makes this take so fascinating is the location. Blocks away from the Washington Square setting, this small Greenwich Village basement really enhances the claustrophobia Catherine must feel cooped up in her tyrannical father’s lavish brownstone. The curtains are drawn and the mood is dark.

The set consists of two chairs. No adornments on the walls or floors. Just lighting and four actors in resplendent period costumes. A father who hates familiarity. “It’s vulgar” he says. Repressed formality is the world here. Happiness is not a goal. In this particular closet daughter Catherine lives under strict rule.

The plot is simple. Father blames overly plain daughter for his wife’s death during childbirth. He is a domineering grump who bellows “you’re as intelligent as a bundle of shawls”. His widowed sister lives with them and yearns for a romanticism which eludes her at an advanced age. She noses her way in anyway when Catherine begins a relationship with a handsome, jobless, penniless suitor. All the other characters are stripped away in Randy Sharp’s adaptation so the whole meal is a delicious entrée.

The four performances are spot on perfect. Dee Pelletier is a delightful busybody whose backstory is apparent through her current words and actions. Both men, George Demas (Doctor) and Jon McCormick (Morris Townsend), are complexly drawn people with nuanced motivations. Britt Genelin is, quite frankly, breathtaking in the role of Catherine. All the layers are extraordinarily developed and utterly believable. Her physicality amazes. This has to be one of the tightest ensembles on any New York stage right now.

In addition to writing the adaptation, Ms. Sharp directed this return engagement. You can always count on Axis to set a pitch perfect mood as in their tensely wrought High Noon, the immigrant musical Evening – 1910 and the howling dust bowl setting of Last Man Club. While always minimalistic yet impressively effective in design, the storytelling and casting are always maximally delivered. The last seconds of this one are brilliant. Go.

Washington Square is running through April 1, 2023.

www.axiscompany.com

theaterreviewsfrommyseat/lastmanclub

theaterreviewsfrommyseat/highnoon

About This Reviewer - March 10, 2023March 10, 2023

Becomes A Woman (Mint Theatre)

Francie Nolan was the central character in Betty Smith’s 1943 megahit semi-autobiographical novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. This young girl is bright, keenly observant and a dreamer. A decade earlier Ms. Smith penned a play Becomes A Woman while at the University of Michigan with a main character also named Francie Nolan. This work has never been published or produced until now.

This production is typical of discoveries made by the Mint Theatre Company. A forgotten work from the past. Seeking out female authors. An old three act structure. Warmly evocative sets and costumes. Largely memorable performances. And, most importantly, a revelatory glimpse back in time.

What was going on in Ms. Smith’s mind? This play focuses its theme on the burdens women face under the expectations of men. Bosses, husbands, fathers, brothers and suitors crowd the psyche. A coworker tells Francie “a girl has to really like a man before she gets intimate with him, but a man has to get really intimate with a girl before he likes her”. That viewpoint is hardly archaic which greatly enhances exploration within this time capsule.

Why was this play never produced despite winning a prestigious award at Michigan? Early 1930’s America was beginning to clamp down on transgressive themes. The Hollywood code was right around the corner. Premarital sex (for women) was verboten by religions, by parents and by societal pressures. How a young lady is expected to navigate her life within that world is the play’s milieu.

The story itself is not particularly revelatory as the expected joys and horrors of becoming a woman are examined. Really interesting, however, is burying this thoughtful study from view by the morality police. I’m not suggesting a direct intervention hurt this play’s chances but a patriarchal hierarchy coupled with religious zealotry certainly influenced what should be acceptable for public consumption. As our country clamps down once again on what it views as transgressive, Becomes A Woman seems a timely dose of historical perspective.

Emma Pfitzer Price admirably inhabited Francie’s emergence from naive dreamer to open eyed realist. Her parents were recognizable stereotypes but given depth by the excellence of Jeb Brown and Antoinette LaVecchia. Store coworkers Gina Daniels and a period perfect Pearl Rhein nicely assisted in setting the time and place. The “villains” were, as you would expect, slimy and familiar tropes.

Add Becomes A Woman to the Mint’s lengthy win column. I’ve added A Tree Grows in Brooklyn to my lengthy reading list.

Becomes A Woman is playing at New York City Center through March 18, 2023. Also highly recommended are previous productions which are streamed for free online. Currently there are two available: George Kelly’s Philip Goes Forth and Lillian Hellman’s Days to Come.

www.minttheater.org

theaterreviewsfrommyseat/daystocome

About This Reviewer - February 27, 2023

Thank u, ex & The GynoKid

FRIGID Fringe Festival 2023 (Part 7)

The 17th Annual FRIGID Fringe Festival is underway in New York City. This three week event is an open and uncensored downtown theater festival that gives artists an opportunity to let their ingenuity thrive in a venue that values freedom of expression and artistic determination. Many of this year’s performances are livestreamed so there are ample opportunities to see some Indie theater works and support the artists who develop and perform them.

Thank u, ex

“Society tells little girls if a boy is mean to you he likes you”. In Kelly Taylor and Melly Magrath’s acutely conceived show, relationship histories will be explored. Advice will be proffered. Wrapping it all into a 90’s confection allows Thank u, ex the opportunity to present familiar material in a creative and engaging way.

A video accompanies this show and lessons will be taught including the five rules to get over a breakup. (Ice cream night is number two.) The real fun happens onstage. Beginning with a third grade crush, the various chapters of a young girl’s love life are examined and commented on for comedic effect. While the primary purpose might be entertainment there is clear conveyance of sisterly counseling. People say “follow your heart” which is “terrible advice”.

As a youngster the dream is Prince Charming. A magazine ad for engagement rings prompts the confession “I stare at it for four hours”. The show will get more adult but not before early crushes are analyzed. “He had a limited edition Pikachu!” One day he asks to borrow her lip balm and eats it. This event becomes the catalyst for a lifetime of trust issues.

Thank u, ex covers the newly moved in boy next door, kissing practice with a pillow up through intimacy experiences. The lighthearted touch is always in evidence despite the angst (and whiskey) swilling around her developing persona. Excelling at video games was one tactic to impress. “I was throwing those shells and banana peels like the only one I was interested in was Yoshi”.

Another boy stuck his tongue in her mouth. That was “before consent culture”. Zingers appear frequently and could benefit with longer pauses to allow for appreciative laughter (“Nightmare on Teen Street”). That said, there are many quotable lines to savor in this show.

An important North Star provides guidance and light. “The only toxic thing we should have in our lives” is the Britney Spears hit single Toxic. Indeed sound advice lovingly encased in a bubbly rant which should have extra appeal to those with similar coming of age misadventures.

The GynoKid

Have you ever told a story about your childhood to your friends?” asks Claire Ayoub. You thought it funny; the friends did not. Her therapist points out that not everyone had your weird upbringing. The GynoKid is the confidently performed memoir of growing up the daughter of a gynecologist and a nurse midwife in a small town.

Would she naturally become a “child prodigy in the gynecological arts?” “Vaginas paid my way to a historic women’s college”. Work talk at the dinner table was atypical. Instead of “oh the fax machine was broken” she heard “oh another outbreak of gonorrhea”. These impressionable memories are delightful.

Ms. Ayoub’s mom had a stint teaching health in middle school. Her brother is told “your mom’s the period lady”. At a Catholic Church a woman exclaims “Doctor Ayoub it’s so nice to see you with my clothes on”. What might be mortifying to a child is assuredly recounted with loving fondness, winning humor, polished staging and effortless clarity.

Personal revelations are shared which should remain a surprise. I cannot help fixating on the fact that she and her siblings each watched a live birth as children. That visual should be shown to all teens so “they’ll never have sex”. Experiencing the GynoKid’s amusing examination can definitely be recommended despite the “mild discomfort and slight pressure” so familiar to many.

Performances at the Frigid Fringe Festival are running through March 5, 2023. Two dozen shows are performed multiple times at either the Kraine Theater or UNDER St Mark’s. Tickets can also be purchased for many shows via livestreaming as well.

www.frigid.nyc

About This Reviewer - February 26, 2023

Cold Feet: A Comedy Extravaganza & Running Scared

FRIGID Fringe Festival 2023 (Part 6)

Cold Feet: A Comedy Extravaganza

Pop culture references can be effective for finding humor easily shareable with an audience. Cold Feet: A Comedy Extravaganza employs this methodology right from the start. In the first sketch, a character named John states “through the miracles of cloning technology” they have “isolated the cold feet gene”. The “fine people” of the audience are here to “witness the secrets of our research”.

The skit ends rather quickly and then a song is sung. Consulting the script I learn that John’s full name is John Hammond. All three performers play multiple versions of him. Google aids in my understanding. John Hammond is a character in the Jurassic Park franchise. Ah, now I get the DNA mention.

Why do all three face away from the audience and pantomime masturbation? Ah, a related reference to a comment Richard Attenborough as Mr. Hammond makes in the movie. I had no idea what was going on so it was a confused rather than comedic opening for me. Not every joke is made for every person however.

Cold Feet is a series of short sketches interspersed with guitar songs. Shelley the orangutan is a character which links some of the stories. Orangutans have a “vigorous and passionate fuck style”. This material is firmly in randy young men territory but there is some promise in that simian concept.

A spelling bee contains the word anticipation leading to a surprising and amusing use in a requested sentence. “Stereotypes” attempts parody. Italian Andy wears a green cap (Luigi reference!) and declares “les get out of here and go get a big pizza pie with the gabagool and fresh mozarell”.

Cottonwood gets laughs in a stand up section. He receives a bank alert for suspicious activity. He paid a bill on time. Definitely chuckle worthy. There are funny bits on being bisexual and non-binary. Being non-binary causes him to “get mad at myself for leaving the seat up”.

This extravaganza has many moments which feel like inside baseball. References which are near and dear to the performer’s hearts – Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – seem underdeveloped for wider consumption. The camaraderie is evident on stage. Some additional tweaking may help warm those cold feet.

Running Scared

“What am I missing?” Bryan Berlin asks this question in his conversational chronicle about running. How do people “experience the void?” If you are a runner, know one, considering becoming one or just perplexed as to its appeal then Running Scared is likely to satisfy your curiosity.

Mr. Berlin performs a thoughtful meditation on this widely popular sport. He begins in school wanting to join the soccer team with friends. A bout with a warm up mile during tryouts results in “never going back”. He does realize joining a less intense co-ed rec league in town was fun. Something is kindled but lying dormant.

Sitcom writer was the desired job after college. He recounts a “job adjacent” on a reality television series for the Travel Channel. An associate producer role requires him to do every task that no one else wants. Unfortunately, or fortunately, he is recruited to do a little running while filming one episode. The retelling is sharply rendered and highly entertaining. His soon to be raging passion is stoked.

Running becomes more than physical exercise. The activity enables friendships to form while living in New Hampshire and the Reach the Beach tag team fundraiser. Later in Brooklyn he seriously trains for half marathons. A girlfriend jumps in to run together as “it is an important part of your life”.

From school years to the advent of Covid, Mr. Berlin gently weaves his tale of embracing his unabated love for running with the common trials and tribulations of everyday life. The performance ends at this point in his life. The story is unfinished. His devotion is resolute and he comes to realize how much this activity means to him personally. Be warned. You will want to eat a donut after absorbing the beautifully paced Running Scared. Blueberry cake was an excellent choice.

www.frigid.nyc

About This Reviewer - February 23, 2023

TEST, Death of a Salesman: A New Play & Swinging on the Seine

FRIGID Fringe Festival 2023 (Part 5)

TEST

Imagine going to a job interview at a prestigious corporation and you are asked about your sexual orientation. Whether or not you have friends. If you a prone to sweating. Elin Rahnev’s play TEST presents such a future state.

You might view this entire scenario as a far-fetched science fiction nightmare. You might presume it’s inevitable based on current trends. Either interpretation (or both) works in support of a well developed creepy tale of Big Brother at its slimiest.

This company prefers unmarried workers. If one’s wife complains about a broken refrigerator, the employee cannot focus on their work. Those predisposed to obesity could undermine the company’s prestige. Don’t like the questions in this interview? “You can simply get out of the chair and let someone else who is waiting eagerly outside to sit in it.” This new reality is vividly painted in sarcasm. “Do you know how many years it takes to sit in this divinely blessed chair?”

TEST is certainly cynical, perhaps a bit angry, wittily critical and astutely topical. Color coding the questions into segments did not seem additive but the kooky tone remained consistent. The accomplished performances delivered by Maria N. Angelova and Vitan Pravtchev were tightly constructed within the loosely staged framework. The production, directed by the author Mr. Rahnev, nicely showcased the absurdity while allowing the underlying horror to manifest itself.

All interviews come to an end and it was not clear whether this one would fizzle out despite its clever conceit. That did not happen. TEST ratcheted up the insanity with memorable plot twists and a welcome hint towards a larger story. Maybe that’s what the future holds.

Death of a Salesman: A New Play

Absurdist sarcasm does not begin to describe this bizarrely conceived and improbably winning riff on chasing the American dream. Referencing the masterwork by Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman: A New Play updates the quaint door to door salesman from the middle of last century to the entrepreneurial culture of the present.

This version ridicules the high wired youthful get-rich-quick schemers of today in combination with the green movement. A Kickstarter campaign for Eco-ennis Tennis Balls raised one hundred thousand dollars. One year later the founder and his head of sales are still maniacally obsessed with driving their business model. Money has run out, however, and they are eating poorly, to say the least.

The hilariously delusional are the main targets here. Wacky entrepreneurial pitches can sound like brilliant notions when hyped properly. These caricatures know they are onto something big. When a player hits a tennis ball outside the fence there are ramifications. A raccoon might eat it and die. Players routinely hit a few outside each time they go on court. Eco-ennis tennis balls to the rescue!

Money is running out so a pivot is required. Nothing screams entrepreneurial genius like a well-timed pivot as the market responds negatively. Instead of saving animals, let’s message the best bouncing ball ever. Success is just around the corner! “Do you think we’ll miss the hustle when we’re rich?” is the suppositious question posed by these impoverished yet imagined captains of industry.

Playwright Austen Halpern-Graser adds a hallucination or two which abruptly turns this play from silly satire into macabre goofiness. Is the founder experiencing lunatic visions or a real life terrifying inspiration for the next pivot? No matter. It’s just business after all, where people “eat each other’s faces”. Important takeaway: “whoever swallows first, wins”.

Swinging on the Seine

D’yan Forest is 88. She puts that fact “out there right away in case I don’t make it through the show”. She has a certificate from Guinness World Records as the Oldest Working Female Comedian. Her coming of age is the framework. Her vagina and, more specifically, her clitoris is the focus.

“Tonight I’m going to talk and not do swinging,” she tells her amused audience, “unless that’s what you’re into”. Another punchline follows. “Bet you regret sitting in the front row.” This cabaret cum comedic sex drenched travelogue is good natured naughtiness. The audience laughed merrily with her.

The definition of swinging from the title is very clear from the outset. After divorcing a husband, Ms. Forest went to Paris. The journey is recalled as a “bumpy ride” quickly followed with “I did a lot of riding”. The show comes across as a confessional salon in your sprightly grandmother’s parlor starring the horniest version of Betty White imaginable.

Pearls of wisdom from someone who recruited Parisian men to give her ecstasies galore are shared. “Unlike conservative America the French didn’t need to fuck themselves” as “they were fucking each other”. Poetic turns include “He was male / He was French / He knew what to do on a riverside bench”.

In between lovers, instruments are played and songs are sung. Some rewrites are inevitable. The French classic Frere Jacques becomes “I’m a cougar”. Ms. Forest is certainly up-to-date sexually if you were wondering. “When in Paris” she lists “do unto him, do unto her, do unto they for all that matters”. This show is high energy, surreal, sweetly raunchy and likely extremely dangerous to the well-being of conservative prudes everywhere.

www.frigid.nyc

About This Reviewer - February 21, 2023

As I Eat the World & How to Be an Ethical Slut

FRIGID Fringe Festival 2023 (Part 4)

As I Eat the World

“Everything makes me angry” admits Luis Roberto Herrera. As I Eat the World is his highly charged story about eating disorders and mental health issues he has and is confronting. On the stage is a cake shaped like Earth. “I’m here to eat the world” like “a big ‘ol tasty ass cake”. And he takes a bite noting “some good ass icing”.

The moments of levity don’t hang around too long as Mr. Herrera gets to the proverbial meat of the matter. He was “a chubby little Hispanic boy”. Soda was water. When he was in sixth grade, he wore “whatever my french fry body was comfortable with”. The recollections are gritty and candid.

Latinx culture is identified as a major cause for his condition. Food is an absolute necessity at family parties. His discomfort with himself was fueled by uncles who took one look and laughed at him “like a pack of hyenas”. The uber masculine culture resulted in his changing clothing to become basic and not stand out.

More insightfulness is garnered by observing the type of boys who girls talked with. These compounding inputs resulted in decision to “starve myself”. By the time he is a senior in college (2013) he has been starving himself on and off since the seventh grade. The material is rough and relentless.

During a period living in Florida “all I want to do is bang my head against a wall till I paint it red”. The questions he asks aloud following that outburst is the highlight of this piece. We are allowed inside a myriad of Why Why Why self-lacerations. That someone can be that angry yet channel it into a autobiographical one person show is commendable.

A few more anecdotes would be welcome as his personal observations are poignant. The recited food list was one example of a lull in the storytelling. At the end of the play Mr. Herrera doesn’t evoke a rainbow. He exhales. He has shared his cake with us and perhaps that, in and of itself, is enough.

How to Be an Ethical Slut

Brooke McCarthy inhabits the cabaret entertainer Blake Valentini and her unabated promiscuity in the bluntly and aptly titled How to Be an Ethical Slut. She opens with “Hey New York, are you ready to get slutty?” Then she sings a song about loving her ass.

Trollop could have replaced the word slut to perhaps add a level of dignity to this sex mentoring sideshow. But subtlety is not on the song list. The show is broken down into parts, all of which involve bragging about various partners. One part reflects on how to be a dumb slut. Another focuses on how to be a slut in love. This structure works for the material and the quantity of sexual escapades recounted.

As would be expected there is humor in this tale of growing up to be a “smarter slut”. The typical bases are covered including STDs, threelationships, swinger’s clubs and married men. These individual stories are punctuated by (occasionally reworded) song breaks which sometimes feel forced into the act and come across a little shrill and bombastic.

If you are debating whether to take these particular lessons, you should know that “once you become an ethical slut there’s no going back”. The whimsy is certainly fun but the show needs more of it between the sheets. Our chanteuse concludes “I’m really proud to be an ethical slut” before belting out the La Cage aux Folles anthem “I Am What I Am”. After watching this aggressively in your face sexmusical, you might walk away thinking “sometimes the aces, sometimes the deuces”. In this case, however, you need to at least consider working “thruple” into that lyric.