The Spy Who Went Into Rehab (review)

 Spoilers ahoy!

Parody is a tricky thing.  When the form of a parody is to essentially use the target as an excuse for jokes, essentially we are making fun of not only a genre but its fans.  Not so when the jokes are coming from a place of at least affection, if not love.  These parodies, in my view, stand the test of time a la Young Frankenstein or Galaxy Quest.

The Spy Who Went Into Rehab falls into the the latter category.  Gregg Ostrin wrote this clearly with a lot of knowledge about James Bond, Matt Helm, etc.  This shows up in the fact everything is so very fun! The play literally begins with Cross, Simon Cross (Satiar Pourvasei) tied up wearing a white dinner jacket, eyebrow arched and challenging his unseen captors to do their worst.  When they start asking about his medical insurance, the horror hits home.  He is in rehab.

Why?  Well, he claims to have been engaging in a high speed chase with some professional assassins.  In fact, he was drunk out of his brain while attacking an Uber.  A phone call to his boss Z (director Cyndy Fujikawa) confirms he really is stuck in a rehab facility for the next thirty days.  No guns.  No six to nine vodka martinis every day.  No sex.  No smoking.  Oh, and group therapy.

At this point we could spend the entire time making fun of Simon and everyone around him, and in fact the play does exactly that.  But what makes it better than that is when he begins to change.  He starts to recognize he is an addict, and it probably--as he explains to fellow patients--something to do with his father beating him all through childhood.  Simon proves a fascinating person, with lots of great stories to tell--a fact the therapist Stella (Jill Renner) finds frustrating.  Yet the spy does listen to others.  He offers an ear to listen and arm to walk with to Pixie (Alondra Andrade), a pep talk to the insecure Gary (Stuart W. Howard), actually bonds a bit with Yvonne (Rachel Townsend).  And he starts to grow, realizing some facts about his life.

Which is also funny, especially when his arch-enemy shows up and cannot fathom what Simon is even talking about now!  In the end, a lovely series of plot twists spirals up the laughter and makes increasingly clear Simon really did need this therapy.  He's become a better man.  Not coincidentally, he's also now a better secret agent, capable of helping his fellows.

Honestly, the timing of the show (on opening night, let us be fair) was slightly off but that is a nuance, one I suspect will simply correct itself as performances in front of a live audience continue.  

The Spy Who Went Into Rehab plays 8pm Fridays and Saturdays, 3pm Sundays until July 7, 2024 at the Pacific Resident Theatre, 703 Venice Blvd., Venice, CA 90291

The Bald Soprano (review)

Spoilers ahoy! 

I told some folks the title of the play I was going to see--The Bald Soprano by Eugene Ionesco.  Most had not heard of it and seemed baffled by the image.

One friend, though, perked up and asked with an incredulous grin "CityGarage is doing that?"

Which actually says rather a lot, right there.  My own reaction echoes theirs pretty perfectly.

Charles Duncombe, manager of CityGarage in Santa Monica welcomed the audience on opening night, describing the play as like Monty Python.  I would have added "but French."  Which could serve as a review, almost.

Ionesco himself called this an "anti-play" in that it has no story, even though it almost succeeds in pretending it does, deliberately.  In fact it makes for a hilarious and savage comment on pettiness and how much of our lives, our expectations, our assumptions don't really make a lot of sense.  Reacting as it was to the theatre scene of a specific time and place, does that make it dated?  Yes.  And yet also makes it timeless.  Because life--that is to say, we mere mortals--remain absurd.

Now, to continue with a simile, Monty Python as a genre (ditto Theatre of the Absurd) has some tricky if subtle demands.  This production, with a bevy of CityGarage regulars, threads most of the needles and as a result gets a lot of laughs.  As well it should!  Nothing makes very much sense, of course.  That is the point! 

In fact describing anything like a "plot" seems almost meaningless!  Rather the performances themselves simply exist amid a weird melee of musings, assertions, questions, revelations, confessions, arguments, accusations, and ramblings--which somehow feel familiar.  Which is also the point!

Insomuch as there is a point.

Standouts in the cast almost entirely focus on the female characters.  Make of that what you will.  Angela Byer and Bo Roberts play a married couple (or are they?) visiting some friends while suffering from a strong bout of amnesia.  The couple they are visiting (or just maybe really are) consist of Andy Kallok and David E. Frank, the latter playing the wife (again, the female characters stand out--or are they female--I'm not sure), while Courtney Brechemin portrays the Maid who tells us all sorts of wonderful weird things.  A fire chief played by Clifford Irvine rounds up the cast--he visits looking for fires, which is his job after all.  That bit almost makes sense. Almost.

That "almost" is one reason the whole thing is so funny.  It makes for a deliciously weird joke, with extra layers of "WTF?" and "Waitaminute" and "Whhhhaaaat?" on top.  

Imagine the story-telling equivalent of Merry-Go-Round after taking a tiny hit of acid, in France and that suggests a little bit of zany humor direct Frederique Michel achieves with this cast.  Imagine if you will Monty Python and the Holy Grail crossovered with a 1950s sitcom of your choice, minus children.  Then stir in very acid humor about the bourgeoisie.  That sounds like a mere formula, doesn't it?  And yet the only "formula" here is silliness, the arch type of silliness of which we all may well be guilty.

Oh, who am I kidding?  We ARE guilty of such.  Sooner or later.  

So come and have a laugh.

The Bald Soprano plays Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, Sundays at 4pm until June 2, 2024 at City Garage, Bergamot Station, T1 Space, 2525 Michigan Ave, Santa Monica, CA 90404.

Get Naughty! The Krampus Rock Musical (Fringe 2023)

 Spoilers ahoy!

Imagine if you will, a burlesque show that combines Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer with The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

That will probably prepare you for Get Naughty! The Krampus Rock Musical.  For those of you who don't know, Krampus is a Germanic kind of Anti-Santa Claus who puts coal in bad little children's stockings, and if they are really bad, steals them away in his sack to EAT THEM!

As our hostess (Aryiel Hartman) explains, Krampus (Jon Cody) lives at the South Pole with a group of servants/slaves called Switches (including Dana Benedict and Max Moxie) who--in between orgies--help him torture bad children in their dreams then help him in his Christmas Eve duties.  

However, when a Krampus has a child, that child will take up the mantle upon his fortieth birthday.  Hence, the story.  Unbeknownst (at first) to Krampus himself, a wild week with the Witch Fantasma (Miss Spent Youth) years ago created a hellspawn raised by his mother, who calls him Junior (Matt Pick).  As a magic mirror reveals the truth, honestly Krampus looks forward to retiring and putting together his band!  But he has to prepare Junior to become the new Krampus, with the help of his head Switch (i.e. slave) Sinchilla (Sarah O'Dwyer).  Honestly, Junior doesn't seem to quite get it, at least at first.  

Meanwhile there's a B plot about a pair of children, Camden (Kim Dalton) and Joan (Mary Louise Lukasiewicz) who begin to realize Krampus might be real and that they are his natural prey.  So they begin to make plans...which do not involve being any less naughty. Oh, no!

As I hope this precis makes clear, we have hear a very fun show, one that takes any little mishaps in stride with a (sometimes literal) wink to the audience.  Honestly, it is a little slow getting started.  But I grew more and more invested in the whole game of watching this play out, until by halfway through I was almost dancing to the music (composed by Cliff Retallick, who also wrote the delightful madness that is this book).  Kudos also to choreographers Alli Miller and Lauren Avon.

Get Naughty! The Kampus Rock Musical plays at the Three Clubs, 1123 N VINE ST, Hollywood, CA 90038 with one more show as of this writing:  Thursday June 22 2023, 7:00 PM

Demonic Housewives (review)

Spoilers ahoy!

As I write this Demonic Housewives has only three performances to go, barring a revival (which I would not dismiss out of hand).  Should you go see it?

Well, it depends on your taste.  Do you have a somewhat dark sense of humor?  Does a story of a small town secretly ruled by a cabal of satanist housewives sound like fun to  you?  What about a pair of goth girls trying to destroy an evil talisman?  Did you enjoy the t.v. show Monsters? Tales from the Dark Side? How about Tales from the Crypt?

Because that is the kind of show this is.  Silly, fun, oddly touching in a way, not taking itself too seriously.  It all takes place in the town of Hobsville ("Hob" is an ancient name for the devil), where Wanda (Lee Quarrie) tries to work some dangerous ritual magic and ends up a pile of ashes for her trouble.

Hey, I did warn  you about spoilers!  I did!

Credit: Adam Neubauer

We soon meet the rest of cast, staring with a trio of gossips named Lucille (Anne Westcott), Ethel (Aubry Manning) and Bertha (Suzie Heaton). In a way, the whole play is about three sets of three, each a center of some kind of power.

The satanic coven consists of the local preacher's wife Millicent (Redetha Deason), her dim friend Peggy (Beth Fisher) and new recruit--naive, unemployed teacher Kim (Monet Hendricks).  This latter has no idea what she's gotten into, nor how ruthless Millicent can be.

Finally there's an ersatz trio, of Wanda niece Darcy (Lara Fisher), the only member of the family who comes to settle the late occultist's things, with her in-your-face best friend RAE (Caitlin McCormick).  Later these two are joined by the ghost of Wanda, in efforts to somehow destroy a magic talisman that could release a horde of demons held captive.  Opposing them are Millicent's coven, who seek to help the demons escape!

Credit: Adam Neubauer

Amid all of this hilarity--and it is hilarity, taken with just about as much seriousness as the Ghostbusters--the show has a violinist (Elif Savas) and cellist (Jennifer Novak Chun) offering musical accompaniment to events.  Don't know if that was in Thomas J. Misuraca's script or emerged from director Sebastian Munoz' mind, but it works!

Now, as you've hopefully gathered from this review Demonic Housewives is an entertaining comedy poking fun at religion and some of the tropes of the horror genre, well-acted and generally performed with a lot of energy.  Well and good, because it is all that.  Let me add however it is also an intensely clever work, in many ways. For one thing, how refreshing to see a play on this subject entirely about women!  Consider the works of H.P.Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Robert Bloch and Richard Matheson when you ask why that might be refreshing. Second, there's an underlying wit to the the whole story--the intersecting triads of power for example, which is too pervasive to be anything but deliberate, and also the clever way the play's ending remains deliciously, ominously "open."  Tribute to the fact the best comedies are more than a string of punchlines strung together into something resembling a plot.  Here, the plot and characters themselves are part of the humor, not least because one can easily see this same story told "straight" as a horror movie (probably on Lifetime).

A fine inaugural show for Force of Nature Productions--a wonderfully crafted blend of humor and horror, written cleverly and performed with comedic skill.

Demonic Housewives plays Thursdays at 8pm and Sundays at 7pm until May 1, 2016 at the Archway Theatre, 10509 Burbank Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 9160.

The Jew That Saved Christmas (review)

Spoilers ahoy!

Let me make one thing utterly, absolutely clear beyond all doubt. The Jew That Saved Christmas is fun. Lots of fun. As in laugh out loud lots of times fun, not least from the irreverent humor that never turns nasty or mean.

My friend Andy Shultz wrote this one act comedy, the third of his plays I've gotten to see at ZJU, every one a kind of gem. Comedy generally proves much trickier than most folks presume, because it depends on getting a startling number of factors just right--not least timing and tone (frankly most comic plays I seem don't rise to this challenge).  As director of his own work, Shultz helps nail both.

Credit: Andy Shultz

The title character is played by Adam Neubauer, another playwright/director at ZJU, a deeply unhappy and unlucky young man named Larry who wants nothing more for Christmas that to eat Chinese food with his lesbian roommate (Kyle M. Collucci) and watch t.v.  Naturally things don't go as planned. Quite apart from his best friend (David Wyn Harris) moaning over his recent breakup and then lusting after our lead's mother (Deirdre Anderson), there's also the obnoxious neighbor (Carol Muniak)  who has a crush on Larry and won't take "Hell No!" for an answer.

Then, there are the Elves (Derrick Brooks, Jennifer Nwene, Brady Glasser). You read right. Elves. Seems an ancient prophecy insists Larry is the Jew That Will Save Christmas by defeating the evil demon Krampus. Does that make any sense? Well, as much as anything when you think about it. 

Credit: Andy Shultz

But here is where the play really works, just as a script. Fun, zany ideas aren't even a dime a dozen. More like a nickel at most. Execution lies the true test of any idea, and this one delivers! We know this because of the final clinching proof--the audience laughs. In a comedy, everything else takes second place, and yet remains nowhere near as easy as one might think. A genuinely funny play isn't just a string of jokes. Larry's personal nightmares keep growing as the story continues, but only after a specific tone of zany kvetching has been established. Then other details of plot, dialogue, character and even costume follow. By fitting together into a whole, we all get "let in" on this world and its skewy POV. Of course Larry's mother cannot imagine anyone good enough for her little boy--and of course that turns his love life into a train wreck, and always will even as she starts making out with Larry's friend, only to have Larry walk in on them. This is his world. Thank God it isn't yours. Now sit back and enjoy!

Credit: Adam Neubauer

Meanwhile the cast proves itself just splendid. Over-acting well is in fact not easy to pull off, neither are half the little bits and things done throughout--like "freezing" in place without losing any energy.

Despite the warning above, I don't want to spoil any potential audience members' joy by revealing too much. What instead I hope to do is whet your appetite. Anyone regularly reading my reviews has sussed onto the fact I love me some angst, some cranial fornication and some deep dark drama. BUT--I adore a show that is pure, unadulterated (and very slightly wicked) FUN.  That is what this show promises, and more importantly, delivers. Really, it would be a shame to miss this.

The Jew That Saved Christmas plays Sundays at 3pm through December 20, 2015 at Zombie Joe's Underground 4850 Lankershim Blvd (just south of the NoHo Sign), North Hollywood CA 91601. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased at zombiejoes.tix.com.

Love Sucks! (review)

Spoilers ahoy!

Love Sucks, the latest entry from the True Focus Theater, proves to have a slightly misleading title. Appropriate, completely so, but given the tenor of our times maybe we expect a harsh condemnation of how relationships go wrong.

This proves to have nowhere near so narrow a focus.

Directed by Vanessa Cate and Angie Hoover, Love Sucks turns out to be a series of vignettes in different forms -- scenes, poetry, pantomime, dance, even a ten minute play by Cate I'd seen before (one of the perhaps three plays such length I've ever thought genuinely good).  The choreography in various pieces from Natalie Hyde and Cheryl Doyle showed a real power, and in the former's case (whose dancing I've seen for years now) an impressive pushing at boundaries.

Photo credit: Vanessa Cate

Sometimes what we saw was hilarious, for one reason or another. I'm still trying to figure out what special chemistry made Tucker Matthews singing a pop song (straight--he did nothing overtly funny) so very funny.

Another particularly hilarious bit had not a word of dialogue, but told the simple (okay not simple but incredibely perverse) story of a blind date that seems like one of those instant moments of clicking between two people.

Other moments were sweet, at times very sad.

Yet other moments, scenes and things shared with us other--sometimes very strange--aspects of this compulsion we seem to have, to find someone with whom to share the loneliness, to taste the days and nights together. Why do we do that, one might wonder? Is it really so instrinsic to human nature that we seek out someone, looking for that perfect companion, that other side of our wounded soul?

Photo credit: Vanessa Cate

This play doesn't seek to answer that question. It rather explores the beautiful foolishness, the silly and horrible mistakes, the hunger we keep trying to fulfill one way or another. We see a breakup so terrible and humiliating we want to crawl under our chairs--yet we laugh. How very human.

Remembrances of love gone away, for one reason or another. Unrequited love creating a seemingly hopeless triangle, which then becomes something...well, crazy. Maybe. But it might work. We'll never know.

It all seems very familiar, though. At least it did to me. Because even though my life has not had nearly as much romance as I'd've liked, this all rang true. Very nearly too much at time. The experience I find most powerful in any form of drama is recognition of myself. A promiscuous lesbian, a loser lying about having crabs, a young man kept as a slave, a married woman yearning for the girl she left behind, a gay man hopelessly in love with a straight one -- what Love Sucks made me feel was how each of these were me. Each of them were all of us, if only we'd admit it.

Love Sucks plays Sundays at 7:30pm at Zombie Joe's Underground Theater, 4850 Lankershim Blvd (just south of the NoHo sign)., North Hollywood, CA 91601 until August 30, 2015.  Tickets are $15 and in my opinion well worth it.