Applause! Applause! Review of The Mystery Of Irma Vep at The Players Theatre by Dr. Thomas Robert Stevens

This review of Charles Ludlam's The Mystery Of Irma Vep at The Players Theatre was written by Dr. Thomas Robert Stevens and published in Volume X, Issue 5 (2015) of the online edition of Applause! Applause!

The Mystery Of Irma Vep

Written by Charles Ludlam

Directed by Christian Amato
The Players Theatre
115 MacDougal Street
New York, New York 10012
Reviewed 11/12/15  

The Mystery Of Irma Vep was first produced by Charles Ludlam's Ridiculous Theatrical Company, opening off-off-Broadway at One Sheridan Square in Greenwich Village in September 1984 and closing in April 1986. It starred Ludlam as Lady Enid, the new mistress of Mandacrest, and Everett Quinton as Lord Edgar Hillcrest, the master of the manor. Ludlam and Quinton played all the characters (male and female), In order to ensure cross-dressing, licenses to perform the play include a stipulation that the actors must be of the same sex. The original "cast and crew" won a special Drama Desk Award, and Ludlam and Quinton won the 1985 Obie Award for Ensemble Performance. 

Highlights of The Manifesto of the Ridiculous Theatre included the following pearls of wisdom: "The things one takes seriously are one's weaknesses."; "The comic hero thrives on his vices. The tragic hero is destroyed by his virtue. Moral paradox is the crux of drama."; and "The theater is a humble materialist enterprise which seeks to produce riches of the imagination, not the other way around." The Mystery Of Irma Vep was also identified as a penny dreadful, which is a term used to refer to cheap popular serial literature produced during the nineteenth century in the United Kingdom. The subject matter of those stories were typically sensational, focusing on the exploits of detectives, criminals, or supernatural entities. They were published in weekly installments, each costing one (old) penny. The penny dreadfuls were the most alluring and low-priced form of escapist reading available to ordinary working-class youth. 

The Mystery Of Irma Vep was produced in the West End in London in 1990 at the Ambassadors Theatre, after a season at the Haymarket Theatre (Leicester). In 1991, it was the most-produced play in the United States. The show was later produced off-Broadway at the Westside Theatre from September 1998 through July 1999, with Quinton and Stephen DeRosa. That production won the 1999 Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Revival, along with Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for Outstanding Revival of a Play, Outstanding Lighting Design (John Lee Beatty), and Outstanding Costume Design (William Ivey Long). 

This production, which is performed in three acts without intermission, involved at least 35 costume changes and a large number of sound cues, props, and special effects. There are vampires, ghosts, mummies, and werewolves. It is a hilarious parody of Victorian melodrama, gothic horror stories, farce, and Hitchcock-style suspense. The title is the name of a character in the 1915 French movie serial Les Vampires and is an anagram for the word "vampire." It is performed in an overdramatic, camp style by Tyler Nye, who plays Lady Enid (the mistress of the manor), Nicodemus Underwood (the werewolf), and Alcazar (who turns out to be Lady Enid's own father), and by Dominic Sellers, who plays Lord Edgar (the master of the manor), and Jane Twisden (the maid).

The play opens in Mandacrest, the home of Lord Edgar, an Egyptologist, and Lady Enid. Lady Enid is Lord Edgar's second wife, but he has not yet fully recovered from the passing of Irma Vep, his first wife. The house staff includes a maid named Jane Twisden and a swineherd named Nicodemus Underwood. Jane says she loved Lady Irma and is ambivalent about Lady Enid. Nicodemus, on the other hand, likes Lady Enid and promises to be her protector. Both Nicodemus and Jane are hiding secrets; Nicodemus is a reluctant werewolf who is compelled to kill those he loves the most when the full moon is out. Jane is a vampire. Lady Enid is bitten by a vampire and is committed to a sanitarium while Lord Edgar travels to Egypt to discover a cure for her condition. While in Egypt, a female mummy briefly comes to life (after drinking a potion) creating an obsession that finally takes Lord Edgar's mind off his first wife. (Leading to the following quip by Lady Enid: "It's bad enough I married an Egyptologist but I had to marry one who's "hung up on his mummy.") Returning home with the sarcophagus, Edgar is distant and pays little attention to Lady Enid. Jane confesses to Lady Enid that it is she, and not the werewolf, who killed Edgar's first wife and son out of jealousy. (When confronted with how she could kill Lady Irma, who she professed to love, Jane responded, "Love is a kind of madness and madness is a bottomless cup.") Before Jane can kill Lady Enid, Nicodemus, in the form of a werewolf, kills Jane only to be killed in turn by Edgar. Lady Enid discourages Edgar from writing about his experiences in Egypt. To do so, she reveals she was the Egyptian princess who came back to life and that the whole thing was an elaborate sham set up by Alcazar, her father, to discredit him. She went along only to take his mind off his first wife so they could start to live as more than just "brother and sister." (It turns out the tomb of the Egyptian princess was a closed restaurant and that she got into the tomb by simply "walking through the kitchen.") The two reconcile and supposedly live happily ever after - or at least until the next installment of the story is published.

There are a number of questions raised in the play that go unanswered. Is Lady Irma alive or dead? Was she a vampire? Is Nicodemus Lord Edgar's son? If Jane is the person locked in the prison cell, then who is walking around as the maid serving tea? Who locked Jane/Irma in the cell and who is torturing her for information about the jewels hidden in the house? Are there hidden jewels at all? And what about Big Victor and Little Victor; where do they fit into the story? What starts out as a simply ridiculous, outrageous, highly unlikely storyline quickly explodes into the incredible and fantastic requiring you to consciously suspend your disbelief in order to continue to enjoy the wild ride. Fasten those seatbelts for a frenetic fantasy!

Tyler Nye and Dominic Sellers do a fine job portraying all the characters. They are both highly proficient and talented actors who never cease to be entertaining. Some funny lines from the play  include: "Virginity is the balloon in the carnival of life; one prick and it's gone" as well as the statement that "any man who dresses up as a woman can't be all bad." Finally, in coming on to Jane, Nicodemus said, "Give me a little kiss!" Jane responds, "I'll see you hung first!" to which Nicodemus responds, "Give me a kiss and I'll show you how hung I am." 

If you are looking for a way out of your mundane, humdrum existence, a good first step would be seeing Charles Ludlam's campy comedy during its limited run through November 21, 2015 at The Players Theatre. Tickets cost $50.00 for Tier 2 seats (Rows C-N) and $40.00 for Tier 3 seats (Rows O-P). Call 212-352-3101 or purchase your tickets online at www.TheTheatreProject.org 

Applause! Applause! Review of The Lilliput Troupe at The Chernuchin Theatre (American Theatre Of Actors) by Dr. Thomas Robert Stevens

This review of Gaby FeBland's The Lilliput Troupe at The Chernuchin Theatre (American Theatre Of Actors) was written by Dr. Thomas Robert Stevens and published in Volume X, Issue 5 (2015) of the online edition of Applause! Applause!

The Lilliput Troupe
Written by Gaby FeBland
Directed by Alex Benjamin
The Chernuchin Theatre
American Theatre Of Actors
314 West 54th Street
New York, New York 10019
Reviewed 11/10/15  

The Lilliput Troupe tells the incredible story of the Ovitz family, seven vaudeville-performing siblings with dwarfism who survived a year in Auschwitz under the watchful eye of Dr. Josef Mengele, who protected his "collection" while studying and experimenting upon them. Dr. Mengele, who they called "uncle," gave them extra rations, built a separate house for them to live in, brought them gifts, and demanded they perform in shows and on film. He studied them and kept them captive for research purposes. As a result of having Dr. Mengele's "protection," all seven Ovitz family dwarfs (Rozika, Franziska, Avram, Frieda, Micki, Elizabeth, and Piroska, nicknamed "Perla") survived World War II, later returning to the stage to entertain future generations of fans. 

Structured as a post-war vaudeville retelling of Snow White, the play follows the Ovitz dwarfs as they set out on their journey from Rozavlea, Romania to perform in Yiddish theaters across Romania, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia as "The Lilliput Troupe." The name was an homage to the small but mighty Lilliputians of Gulliver's Travels. They wished to be known for their talent and obtained fame for their comedy and klezmer music at a time when many of their fellow little people in the entertainment industry were relegated to freak shows and circuses. While they continued to perform for many years by hiding their Jewish identity, they were unable to hide their short stature, which made them "undesirables" under Nazi ideology. As a result, they were rounded up and sent to Auschwitz.

The Lilliput Troupe was originally conceived by Gaby FeBland as a part of a playwriting program offered through the Theatre Department of Northwestern University. Alex Benjamin then joined the team to direct a workshop production featuring Northwestern undergraduates that was performed on-campus in Spring of 2014. A year later, Jack Eidson and Sally Lindel joined the team as Executive Producers to pitch the show to the 2015 Araca Project (an initiative of the commercial producing group The Araca Group), which is committed to fostering young entrepreneurs from Syracuse University, University of Michigan, Florida State University, Yale University, and Northwestern University, to give artists the opportunity to take on the full artistic and fiscal responsibility of producing their own work. The Araca Project is responsible for enabling The Lilliput Troupe to have its world premiere Off-Broadway at the American Theatre Of Actors.

Aaron Beelner commanded the attention of the audience with his charismatic portrayal of Avram Ovitz, the older brother, who also doubled as the Master of Ceremonies, the Huntsman, and Dr. Josef Mengele. He opened the show (set in 1946, a few months after the Ovitzes' homecoming) by welcoming the audience to "this temple of imagination," promising "plenty of wonder," and telling some basic jokes such as that his family is "undefeated at limbo." The entire talented cast (Hollis Andrews as Frieda, Aaron Beelner as Avram, Sofiya Cheyenne as Perla, Sarah Folkins as Elizabeth, Lauren Mayeux as Franziska, Laura Presley-Reynolds as Rozkia, and Caleb Tourres as Micki) then broke out into a song claiming that most of what they were about to say is true. This was a very catchy number that clearly exhibited the talents of composer Matt Deitchman. A similarly interesting song about love was sung at the end of the play. What was presented on stage between those songs was a non-linear, convoluted, mishmash of a story that unsuccessfully tried to present the experiences of the Ovitz dwarfs at Auschwitz through the eyes of a Grimm fairy tale, with Perla representing Snow White, Dr. Mengele representing The Huntsman, and Hitler representing the evil Queen. To say this "confluence" technique failed to portray a coherent storyline would be an understatement.

There were some interesting legends told of giants inhabiting the hills of Northern Transylvania (representing how the dwarfs probably perceived tall, blond Germans) and analogies made that would direct us to look upon Mengele's "protection" as more of how an owner would treat his "pets." Mengele was also given a funny line. When asked for more food rations, Dr. Mengele was reminded he "chose" the dwarfs, to which Mengele responded, "But you are Jewish; aren't you all chosen?!" Uncle Mengele disappeared one day from Auschwitz without even saying goodbye to the Ovitz family, which especially bothered Perla, his favorite, who attributed her survival to Mengele for the rest of her life, and "cried" when she heard he had died. She even continued to dream of Dr. Josef Mengele visiting her and bringing her the gift of a music box, with Snow White dancing to the music as the featured twirling balerina. The Ovitz dwarfs are the only family to have survived Auschwitz intact, which might explain why some of them continued to praise Dr. Josef Mengele for saving them. On the other hand, it also might be a case of their suffering from Stockholm Syndrome. 

The extraordinarily talented individuals in The Lilliput Troupe are living proof that people of all shapes and sizes can be great actors and performers. There is a real story here that needs to be told. The characters are all very interesting but the script needs to be rewritten. It would also be my preference for the story to be told in a musical format, with "Most Of This Is True" being the first number. My imagination is going wild as I write songs in my head for when the Ovitz dwarfs got accidentally shoved in an oven at Auschwitz only to be saved at the last moment by Uncle Mengele ("I Don't Need A Shower") or when the dwarfs were forced to stand naked on stage before SS officers ("A Little Embarrassment"). The potential is there for every number to be as offensive, mind-expanding, and entertaining as "Springtime For Hitler" from Mel Brooks' The Producers.

The Lilliput Troupe runs through November 15, 2015 (Wednesday through Friday at 8:00 p.m., Saturday at 2:00 p.m. & 8:00 p.m., Sunday at 3:00 p.m.) at The Chernuchin Theatre (American Theatre Of Actors). You can purchase your tickets ($25.00 for general admission/$30.00 for reserved seating) at www.thelilliputtroupe.com 

Applause! Applause! Review of A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum at Theatre By The Bay by Dr. Thomas Robert Stevens

This review of A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum at Theatre By The Bay (The Community Theatre Group of Bay Terrace Garden Jewish Center) was written by Dr. Thomas Robert Stevens and published in Volume X, Issue 5 (2015) of the online edition of Applause! Applause!

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum
Book by Burt Shevelove & Larry Gelbart
Music & Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim
Directed & Choreographed by Ovi Vargas
Musical Director & Accompanist: Alan Baboff
Costumer: Chery Maniello
Theatre By The Bay
Bay Terrace Garden Jewish Center
13-00 209th Street
Bayside, New York 11360
Reviewed 11/8/15  

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum opened on Broadway on May 8, 1962 at the Alvin Theatre, and then was transferred to the Mark Hellinger Theatre and the Majestic Theatre, where the show closed on August 29, 1964, after 964 performances and 8 previews. Zero Mostel played the lead role of Pseudolus. The show won several Tony Awards for Best Musical, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Book, and Best Director. Mostel also played the lead in the very successful 1966 film of the same name. A 1972 revival on Broadway starred Phil Silvers as Pseudolus (later replaced with Tom Poston). That production ran for 156 performances and won two Tony Awards, the first for Best Leading Actor in a Musical, and the second for Best Featured Actor in a musical. The musical was revived again with great success in 1996, starring Nathan Lane as Pseudolus (replaced by Whoopi Goldberg and later by David Alan Grier). The production closed after 715 performances, and Lane won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actor. In fact, every actor who has opened in the role of Pseudolus on Broadway (Zero Mostel, Phil Silvers, and Nathan Lane) has won a Best Leading Actor Tony Award for their performance. In addition, Jason Alexander, who performed as Pseudolus in one scene in Jerome Robbins' Broadway, also won a Tony for Best Actor in a Musical.

Inspired by the farces of ancient Roman playwright Plautus (251-183 B.C.), specifically Pseudolus, Miles Gloriosus and Mostellaria, the musical tells the tale of a slave named Pseudolus (Frank Josephs) and his attempts to win his freedom by helping his young master Hero (Sam Kaufman) win the love of Philia (Michele Mazzocco), a virgin slave from Crete whom he wishes to marry. Most of the action takes place on a street with three houses. One is owned by Erronius (Bob Alpert), who has been on a journey abroad searching for his long-lost children (kidnapped by pirates when they were infants). The second is owned by Marcus Lycus (Roger Leonardis), the "merchant of love" who is "a procurer of the flesh" in the business of renting and/or selling his merchandise. The third house is owned by Senex (Eli Koenig), who is married to Domina (Lila Edelkind), an emasculating dominant woman, who is the daughter of a general. It is in this house that Pseudolus and Hero live along with Hysterium (Sam Hunt), the house eunuch who has been left in charge since Senex and Domina left to visit her ailing mother. Getting Philia to love Hero turned out to be the easy part. However, she has already been purchased as a bride by the renowned warrior Miles Gloriosus (Michael D'Emidio), who is expected to come to claim her soon. What to do?

The ensuing plot displays the elements of a farce, including puns, potions, the slamming of doors, and cases of mistaken identity (frequently involving characters disguising themselves as others). Pseudolus has to get Philia out of her marriage contract with Miles Gloriosus so she can marry Hero and he can obtain his promised freedom. The result is pure hilarity. Frank Josephs does a fine job playing Pseudolus, interjecting into the script hints of Bert Lahr (as the cowardly lion), Paul Lynde, and The Three Stooges. He adds local references to the performance and remembered where he was when he apologized for saying "Mama Mia!" instead of "Oy Vey!" Sam Hunt was particularly strong in the role of Hysterium. Sam Kaufman showed great acting potential as Hero, as did Jason Wieder, who was impressive in various roles. Silent beauty dominated the stage as Marcus Lycus introduced his merchandise, which included Baletta (Jamie Barry), Gymnasia (Rebecca Cushman), Panacea (Christine Hull), Vibrata (Maria Louise), and Tintinabula (Alexandra Piquette). All cast members performed well. "Comedy Tonight," "Lovely," "Everybody Ought To Have A Maid," and "Impossible" stood out for me as having been particularly well-sung and Chery Maniello deserves special credit for doing an amazing job as the Costumer for the show.

The funniest line of the play, in my opinion, was uttered by Pseudolus while he was looking at one of the courtesans (i.e. prostitutes) in an upside down-and-sideways sought of way. He said, "she has a beautiful smile here, but I am a man of limited means." (Watch for it!) In a case of confused identity, Domina (thought to be an old courtesan) tells Miles Gloriosus that on the anniversary of her father's death, she entertained over 200 officers. When asked if she accomplished that task all by herself, she says, "No. Hysterium was a big help." 

If you are looking for a light-hearted musical that will take your mind off your cares and woes, I recommend you see Theatre By The Bay's production of A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum playing Saturday, November 14th & 21st at 8:00 p.m., and on Sunday, November 15th & 22nd at 3:00 p.m. Tickets cost $22.00 for adults and $20.00 for seniors (over 62) and children (12 and under). You can buy you tickets by calling 718-428-6363 or you can reserve them online by visiting http://www.theatrebythebayny.com/RESERVE-YOUR-TICKETS.html 

This is the first time I reviewed a show produced by Theatre By The Bay at the Bay Terrace Garden Jewish Center. I was impressed with the layout and the friendliness of the staff. There were many security guards but they mostly made sure guests didn't wander into restricted areas. Concession items were priced right at $1.25 for coffee, soda or snacks. I was surprised there were no baked goods given the number of Jewish mothers associated with the theater company, but I was told there was no way to guarantee that donated goods would be kosher. (The guarantee, of course, is to ask the mothers to only bake kosher goods - would they really lie!) On the negative side, I recommend you get there early because finding parking is difficult but not impossible. 

Applause! Applause! Review of Lucie Pohl's Hi, Hitler at Under St. Mark's Theater by Dr. Thomas Robert Stevens

This review of Lucie Pohl's Hi, Hitler at Under St. Mark's Theater was written by Dr. Thomas Robert Stevens and published in Volume X, Issue 5 (2015) of the online edition of Applause! Applause!

Hi, Hitler
Written & Performed by Lucie Pohl
Directed by Jessi D. Hill
Technical Director: Ian Wehrle
Under St. Mark's Theater
94 St. Mark's Place
New York, New York 10009
Reviewed 11/3/15  

One hook to obtain publicity and audience for this show, besides the provocative title, has been the well-advertised fact that Lucie Pohl is "Bertold Brecht's real life niece" and that, as such, she "yearns for normalcy." This claim is pure fiction. Lucie Pohl, daughter of Klaus Pohl (an actor and playwright from Bavaria) and Sanda Weigl (a singer from Romania), was born in Hamburg, Germany in 1983. Egon Weigl, her grandfather on her mother's side who fled the Nazis (moving from Berlin to Bucharest and marrying Irina Weigl after World War II), was the cousin of Helene Weigel, Bertold Brecht's second wife. Helene encouraged Egon to move his family to back to Berlin (GDR) from Romania in 1961. Bertold Brecht died on August 14, 1956 and his wife, Helene Weigel, died on May 6, 1971 - many years before Lucie was born. I will leave it to you to figure out the exact relationship between Lucie Pohl and Bertold Brecht.  Requests to Ms. Pohl to fill in the lineage for me have gone unanswered.  

The title of the show comes from the fact that at age 4, her favorite two things were candy and Hitler. She even wanted to dress up as Hitler for Halloween and always thought people were saying Hi, Hitler when they were really saying Heil, Hitler (not that many people were saying that in East Germany in the 1980s). She claims she was even born with a mustache and loved to draw Uncle Adolf when she was young. They even called her "Little Nero" for her dictatorial ability to get people to do whatever she wanted. She claims her house was always full of drama and that when she was upset, she would go and watch herself cry in front of the hallway mirror "because that's what you do in a theatrical family." She tried to maintain her sanity as a child through her efforts to indulge in the bliss of the domestic tranquility of the families of her friends while trying to distance herself from the chaos of her own family. Lucie Pohl referred to this continuing drama as The Pohl Family Circus, of which she found herself in the center ring at age 19 when she made the questionable decision to become the mistress of Fabian, her aunt's 31-year-old boyfriend.

She describes her father as being an alcoholic and a philanderer and her mother as a very proper, non-drinking, Romanian Jew. As a young child, she lived in Germany. She was thrown out of kindergarten because her mother continued to bring her to school late. Lucie said, "When it comes to punctuality, my mother was super-Romanian." When the school scolded her mom, she told the school administrator, "This is a kindergarten, not a concentration camp, you Nazi", after which she found herself promptly expelled. In 1992, when she was 8 years old, her family moved to New York City, and at age 18, she returned to Germany to study acting. After the family scandal, she traveled to Greece and hung out on the beach smoking weed. She returned to New York City with Odysseus, her new Greek lover, whereupon she applied for a green card. She told Mr. Shapiro, the immigration official interviewing her, "I feel like New York City is my home," to which he responded, "You might think this is your home, in your head, but Homeland Security doesn't think so!"

Lucie Pohl is very animated and expressive when describing her feelings of being an outsider and an alien wherever she went. She has a very strong stage presence. However, there is a basic failure in her writing to properly develop the idiosyncrasies and personalities of her characters. We don't get to know any of them too well. In addition, the stories she has selected from her life are just not that interesting. They don't captivate the attention of the audience nor do they contain any real life lessons. Ms. Pohl is a talented actress full of charisma and energy. Nevertheless, in my opinion, she needs to dig deeper, to be totally honest, and to include more stories in her act that are actually funny. As it stands, there isn't anything very substantive left once you scratch away the surface of her material. I left the show not having been emotionally moved, not really knowing much about the people in her life, and most devastatingly, not really having laughed all that much, which was quite disappointing.  

Lucie Pohl's Hi, Hitler has been nominated for the 2015 New York Innovative Theatre Foundation's Award for Outstanding Solo Performance. Two additional performances have been added - November 27-28, 2015 at 7:30 p.m. at Under St. Mark's Theater. Tickets cost $18.00 ($15.00 for Students, Seniors & Military). You can purchase  them at http://tinyurl.com/p55z2pp 

Applause! Applause! Review of Colby Day's Kitchen Sink Experiment(s) at Brian & Simone's Apartment by Nickolaus Hines

This review of Colby Day's Kitchen Sink Experiment(s) at Brian & Simone's Apartment was written by Nickolaus Hines and published in Volume X, Issue 5 (2015) of the online edition of Applause! Applause!

Kitchen Sink Experiment(s)
Written by Colby Day
Directed by Andrew J. Scoville
Production Designer: Joel Soren
Stage Manager: Alannah O'Hagan
Crashbox Theater Company
Brian & Simone's Apartment
28 Scott Avenue
Bushwick, Brooklyn 11237
Reviewed 10/25/15  

Getting into a Bushwick loft is an adventure. Walking dark streets at night, entering through a door and walking down a winding hallway, passing numbers on doorways with signs on them hinting at inhabitants inside. Suffice it to say, finding the Kitchen Sink Experiment(s) is part of the experience. It's casual, there's beer for a donation, and it's intimate; the loft has a lived-in feel. A small audience sits on wood-topped bookshelves along the walls with cushions for seats that have varied flower designs.

The Kitchen Sink Experiment(s) may as well be called The Experiment In Audience Voyeurism. Playwright Colby Day has created a work that focuses on the sexy and dramatic as well as the everyday and mundane. The play follows a couple, played by Lena Hudson and Matthew K. Davis, as they submit themselves to a social experiment. The experiment is to be observed by a college scientist, played by Rachel Lin, to see how cohabiting couples live in their natural habitats. Unacknowledged by the actors but very much a felt presence in the show is the 20 or so theater guests, some of them less than five feet away from the action happening in the middle of the loft; some of them less than two feet away.

The closest resemblance to other pieces of work would be Lena Dunham's television show "Girls." Hudson and Davis are keenly aware of their behaviors and every facial expression. A single missed beat can be devastating when the audience is so close they can count the actors' eyelashes, but both were so natural at being natural that it didn't appear as if they were acting at all. 

Lin plays her part well, and her character is the keeper of time over the week that passes on stage. Judging a character by how much she isn't there is peculiar, but that is what must be done with Lin's character. She is supposed to observe, hear and not be heard, see and not be seen. She is also the perfect soundboard for the questions that every twenty-something must face, and her presence allows for periods of semi-monologue for both Hudson and Davis.

The passage of time is heavy in this piece. A constantly clicking clock counts away the minutes and clever lighting techniques signal the day, when Hudson's character works, and the night, when Davis' character works. For the most part, every aspect of an average day is played out in the loft. There is silence and cooking. There is sleeping and painting. There is sex and eating - a lot of eating!

Much of the tension comes from the awkwardness of being observed, and most of the humor stems from it as well. The silences are as unbearable as silences among a group of friends when someone says something awkward or during the lag time before switching the topic of conversation.

The Kitchen Sink Experiment(s) toys with existentialism and nihilism. It is deeper than the atmosphere suggests. Each character struggles with finding out who they are, who they want to be, and what the point of everything is anyway. There's enough philosophical questioning to make Nietzsche jealous.

Prudish audience members may find some of the experimental aspects of the play to be a turn-off; the two sex scenes, for example. If the first one just off-stage with loud screams doesn't make you blush, then perhaps the second one on the kitchen table, a spitting distance from the farthest audience member, might. If that doesn't do it, maybe it will be Hudson dropping her robe to reveal her stark naked body, while remarking, "I wouldn't have agreed to do this is if I was shy." Even for a conservative crowd, however, there is much to be learned about life in the Kitchen Sink Experiment(s). Figuring out what the purpose of life is and what it means to be you are universal questions every person must face.

The opportunity to observe characters who are reacting to being observed, no matter how meta that may read, is a different experience than observing characters pretending not to be observed. The Kitchen Sink Experiment(s) is quintessentially a show where you come for the humor and voyeurism, stay, and think about it after for the philosophical pondering.

The Kitchen Sink Experiment(s) has been extended through November 13, 2015. Tickets are $28.00 with a limited audience of 20 people per performance. To purchase tickets, call 1-800-838-3006 or visit www.crashboxtickets.com 

Applause! Applause! Review of Dandy Darkly's Trigger Happy! at Under St. Mark's Theater by Dr. Thomas Robert Stevens

This review of Dandy Darkly's Trigger Happy! at Under St. Mark's Theater was written by Dr. Thomas Robert Stevens and published in Volume X, Issue 5 (2015) of the online edition of Applause! Applause!

Dandy Darkly's Trigger Happy!
Written by Neil Arthur James
Performed as Dandy Darkly
Directed by Ian Bjorklund
Under St. Mark's Theater
94 St. Mark's Place
New York, New York 10009
Reviewed 10/30/15  

Dandy Darkly is a colorful, master storyteller and performance artist who is able to provide audiences with insightful, thought-provoking, entertaining tales that always succeed in captivating your attention and leaving you a little more aware than you were when you came in. Delivering this Cowboy Cabaret in an intimate campfire style ("Gather 'round this campiest of campfires!"), he opened the show by asking the audience to place their hands on their hearts, to face the American flag hung on the stage behind him, and to recite in lip-sync style, along with prerecorded children, The Pledge of Allegiance, which was interrupted occasionally by the sounds of rapid machine-gun fire in the background. 

Appearing in a jewel-spangled, black cowboy outfit, with two white pearl guns, a sheriff's badge, a human skull belt buckle, a clown-painted face, and authentic, pointy-tipped rattlesnake skin boots (he purchased in Wyoming), DandyDarkly tells four vivid, insightful, incredible, mesmerizing stories packed full of thoughtful social and political commentary with taped, perfectly timed, original background music provided by Adam Tendler, Rachel Blumberg, Jeffrey Underhill, and Bryce Edwards, his musical collaborators. Lighting design was by Christina Watanabe. Despite the bizarre collection of characters presented during this roller-coaster ride through a dreamlike phantasmagoria, this genius storyteller stays on track by telling coherent tales carefully crafted to hit the mark in terms of wit, satire, and comedy. 

The first story entitled "Silver Dollar" is about Otis Moonshine, an American soldier who served as a sniper and now appears to have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Post discharge and now back home stateside with his wife, he is having a hard time adjusting. He drinks heavily and claims he sees werewolves everywhere. He even believes the enemy soldiers he killed were werewolves and that he only lived because of a silver dollar he kept in his uniform. He eventually loses his job and his wife, and we learn he is a homophobic, closeted gay man who sneaks out into the forest at night for anonymous gay sex but who wouldn't be caught dead in a gay bar. While on those forbidden paths, he "steps on used condoms that squirt out semen like mayonnaise from a condiment packet." He hates his own gay urges and struggles with the shame of being "a faggot" while at the same time facing a PTSD-inspired impulse to commit mass murder. He wants no part of the werewolf pack and it disgusts him that werewolves are even in churches nowadays getting married to each other! Close to suicide, he is invited by Blair, a childhood gay friend, to attend his wedding in a gay bar. As a teen, he had a crush on Blair, who was the only man, including himself, willing to accept him for who he was. Otis reflects on his experiences in war and realizes that who gets their legs blown off and whether an innocent person is killed is as arbitrary as the flip of a coin. So Otis decides to flip his silver coin. Heads, he will attend Blair's wedding and accept his own homosexual desires. Tales, he will barge into the gay wedding and kill all the gay werewolves (who congregate in the woods under the full moon) with extreme prejudice. 

Virginia Titsworth, Hollywood's Sweetheart, is the subject of the second tale entitled "Final Girl." She was just found dead and the story acts as a eulogy for this beloved actress who sought recognition and fame, as most minor celebrities continue to do throughout their lives. Ms. Titsworth was the childhood spokesperson for Baby's Breath cigarettes, and eventually found fame as a beautiful, scream queen in Final Girl, the titular heroine of a low-budget slasher film that went on to spawn nine sequels, including one where she played a crazy lady committed to the Santa Clara Home For Nervous Women. Her success type-cast her in that particular role, which destroyed her career. She did write a memoir entitled Final Woman but the roles dried up and she became increasingly distraught, eventually being committed to the Santa Clara Home For Nervous Women, which was "highly publicized" and "highly ironic." In the end, she won a People's Choice Award for her performance in the reality television show entitled Scare An Old White Bitch To Death, one skit of which was her being chased by Bill Cosby carrying a cocktail. 

In "American Apparel," the subject of gentrification is addressed as The Imperial Poppycock Saloon, founded in 1901 for "finicky fellows of refinement," is being torn down and replaced by upscale condominiums and stores such as American Apparel. Dandy tries to make the point that we are surrounded by so much history, but at the same time, everything and everyone is getting swallowed up and homogenized. When the Imperial Poppycock Saloon is finally padlocked, Bidet, a drag queen rat who has longed to perform cabaret, dons a cotton ball wig and a band aid sash, and climbs on top of a matchbook cover to perform for all the mice, spiders, raccoons, homeless men, and others who gather each night in this now-closed and abandoned bar. She is a hit! Perhaps in reality, but perhaps it is all just a whiskey induced delusion. As she and others adjust to the new upscale, hip neighborhood, she seizes her opportunity and re-opens The Imperial Poppycock Saloon as Bidets.

In the final tale of the evening entitled "The Ghosts Of Stonewall," Dandy Darkly rails against political correctness and condemns those progressive activists who are afraid of words. He says it is the rich and powerful who should be afraid of words that expose their corruption. He condemns the GLBT Youth of the Grindr generation, who take their equal rights for granted and forget the rich oral history of those who fought at Stonewall and who remain radicalized fighting against the status quo and for the civil liberties of all Americans. If you don't like the way things are, fight to change them! And if you do, The Ghosts Of Stonewall may throw you a rose!

Dandy Darkly's Trigger Happy! (All-American, Satiric, Horrific, Patriotic Tales Of Sex & Death) contains macabre stories packed with unusual metaphors and artful alliterations that allow you to watch a wicked wordsmith tell his tales the way they were intended to be told. Dandy Darkly is a likable, colorful storyteller destined for international fame and fortune! For more information about Dandy Darkly, visit his website at: www.dandydarkly.com 

Applause! Applause! Review of Barbara Lusch's Rock Me Sweet at The Metropolitan Room by Nickolaus Hines

This review of Barbara Lusch's Rock Me Sweet at The Metropolitan Room was written by Nickolaus Hines and published in Volume X, Issue 5 (2015) of the online edition of Applause! Applause!

Rock Me Sweet - Barbara Lusch
The Metropolitan Room 
34 West 22nd Street
New York, New York 10010
Reviewed 10/22/15  

When a familiar song wafts out of a karaoke bar, it's hard not to stop and listen. It doesn't matter if the voice is horrendous, beautiful, or just average, the communal aspect of someone singing a well-known song should be applauded and celebrated. 

When a familiar song drifts slowly and lazily out of a karaoke bar, it's also hard not to stop and listen for a very different reason. A song becomes something entirely new when the tempo is stretched and the genre is changed. Stopping and listening becomes an act of trying to figure out what the original song is rather than whether the new version is worth listening to.

The latter happened set after set in Barbara Lusch's jazz renditions of pop songs. The band (led by Art Hirahara, on piano, who leads a quartet with Alex Hernandez on bass, Jennifer Vincent on cello, and Dan Aran on drums) was capable but unenthusiastic; her voice wasn't unpleasant despite it being plagued by a small range; and the songs were classics, which became apparent once the notes were sped up in the listener's head. Lusch confuses "jazz" with "slow tempo."

A tortoise isn't expected to sprint, just the same as the audience learns to expect that Lusch won't sing an uptempo song. Heart pounders like Bon Jovi's "Living On A Prayer" and slow(ish) paced songs like "Sweet Child Of Mine" receive the same treatment, both range and tempo wise, as Peggy Lee's "Fever." The songs that Lusch tries to tackle have seemingly little in common. The greatest revelation and insight you get when Lusch sings them is just how different the songs really are and how different they should be. "Where The Streets Have No Name" by U2, which Lusch initially confused with Bon Jovi, is a well-known song for plenty of reasons, but not for the reason that it relies on the exact same treatment as "Want You To Want Me."

Lusch's mediocre dialogue fit the audience. A long table of family and friends at the front, and a speckle of people who helped produce the CD in the back. They all knew the ins and outs of her life and shared inside jokes with her. Very few, if any, audience members were strangers who attended the show expecting to see the Portland, Oregon jazz sensation advertised, which was just as well since the range of crescendo and decrescendo in her singing, frequently hitting both ends of her range in each song. was not in any way awe-inspiring. Her speaking voice, like her singing voice, was casual, personable, and not unpleasant to listen to, but her banter left a lot to be desired.

This slowed style of remixing songs and successfully repackaging them isn't impossible, but it requires a big voice with a range that makes someone forget the original. Barbara Lusch failed in that effort. In addition, finger-snapping jazz isn't the first remix and genre change that comes to my mind when thinking of songs published by Guns N' Roses. 

It's hard not to sit and wait on edge before each song begins, hoping it will be different. Not necessarily fast, but at least different. By the end of the show, however, Lusch seemed to be running on empty, spent of her reliable musical crutches. There's no thrashing instrumental or a roaring vocal piece to end it, just more of the same. And more of the same is exactly what the audience came to expect.

One remaining show of Barbara Lusch's Rock Me Sweet will be performed on Wednesday, October 28, 2015 at 9:30 p.m. at The Metropolitan Room. The music charge is $20.00. For reservations, call 212-206-0440. For more information or to order tickets online, visit www.metropolitanroom.com 

Applause! Applause! Review of Jackie Mason: Ready To Rumble at NYCB Theatre At Westbury by Dr. Thomas Robert Stevens

This review of Jackie Mason: Ready To Rumble at NYCB Theatre At Westbury was written by Dr. Thomas Robert Stevens and published in Volume X, Issue 5 (2015) of the online edition of Applause! Applause!

Jackie Mason: Ready To Rumble
Written & Performed by Jackie Mason
NYCB Theatre At Westbury
960 Brush Hollow Road
Westbury, New York 11590
Reviewed 10/24/15  

Jackie Mason continues to perform despite his being in his mid-to-late 80s (he was born on June 9th anywhere from 1926 to 1931 depending on the source you consult). He is as sharp and as entertaining as ever and was able to pack the NYCB Theatre At Westbury with 3,000 of his most devoted fans. Who are those fans? They are white, older, Jewish, politically incorrect Republicans with a live-and-let-live libertarian philosophical attitude toward private consensual behavior that causes no harm to others. I spotted no person of color in the audience; 90% were over 65 years of age; 80% were Jewish with the remainder being Gentile; and only 5% of the audience applauded when asked if they planned to vote for Hillary Clinton for President (Jackie guessed twelve people supported her; the remainder supported one of the Republican Presidential candidates). 

Taking these realities into account, Jackie Mason opened his one-man show by stating the audience probably delayed in buying their tickets; at first because they couldn't be certain they'd be alive to see the show, and later because they wanted to make sure he would be alive to do the show. Some waited until the afternoon of the event to commit! Without hesitation, Jackie Mason then jumped directly into a politically controversial issue: same-sex marriage. He said for years the fagalas were in the closet and now, whenever two or more get together, they hold a parade, full of pride, forcing heterosexuals to act all embarrassed trying to explain why they didn't turn out gay. Still, Jackie Mason said he could care less if the fagalas marry. It doesn't affect anyone else's marriage and the sex they have is quite similar. The straight male stands at the edge of the bed about to have sex with his mate while the gay male does the same, except he tells his partner to "turn over." His commitment to limited government and the decriminalization of private consensual behavior (victimless crimes) is why the Libertarian Party of New York once approached him to see if he would accept their gubernatorial nomination. He declined.

Jackie Mason did a spot-on impersonation of Ed Sullivan and Henry Kissinger and did a brilliant rant in the style of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. He blasted Hillary Clinton supporters who continue to back her despite her "lies" and her having accomplished very little as Secretary of State. They tend to give her a pass as long as she continues to tell "old lies" as opposed to "new lies." He admitted there are some people who like Hillary, but he "also recognizes there are a number of people in the world who are a little slow." He took on Donald Trump claiming he owns more signs than buildings. He also questioned why everyone believes Barack Obama is black when he had a white mother. He said we know who his mother is but not his father! He has it "on good authority there were a lot of men in his mother's house the day he was conceived. He could be a Jew with a tan for all we know!"

He brought back a number of "oldies-but-goodies." How Jews are proud to be Jewish but how they'd prefer to look Gentile. How Jews go to the Opera and Ballet as status symbols but end up sleeping through the performances. How Jewish husbands turn to their wives to see if she thinks something is funny before they laugh. How Jews are always thinking of where they are going to have dinner after the show. How Jews always take home food from restaurants "for their dogs" when they don't own a dog. How Jews who sound like him always have a voice on their answering machine that sounds like Winston Churchill. And finally, how Jewish husbands are always being put down by their wives. A Jewish husband could take home 40 million a year and his wife would tell you that if he had listened to her, he'd be taking home twice that!

Jackie Mason told the fictitious story of how a cop stopped him for speeding on the way to the show. The cop said, "Where's the fire!". Jackie responded, "What do you care. You're a cop, not a fireman." The cop said, "I don't like the way you're talking to me." Jackie said, "I make a good living speaking like this. If I spoke like you, I would have been a cop." Finally, the policeman said, "It's people like you who cause accidents." Jackie said, "It is YOU who cause the accidents. Do you have any idea how fast I am going to have to go now to make up for all this lost time?"

He criticized recent lawsuits against tobacco companies for their failure "to admit" cigarettes cause cancer. He said people have known cigarettes cause cancer since the 1960s. At what point will people who decide to smoke be forced to take personal responsibility for that decision? What's next? If you take a knife and plunge it into your heart, will you be able to sue the manufacturer for not telling you the knife can kill you. (Maybe. After all, Courts have held McDonald's responsible for selling coffee that was "too hot," and bartenders and house party hosts have been held liable if their guests chose to drink too much and then harm someone after they leave.) Jackie Mason also questioned why cigarettes are always singled out? He says Sweet & Low warns you right on the package it can cause cancer, and yet people swipe packages of that product any time they can. He also said he is certain "cheesecake has killed more Jews than the Nazis did," and yet no one is making a stink about that. 

Jackie Mason also did a segment on why being rich doesn't necessarily lead to making your life better. For example, he said, "you can swim in the ocean for free but it you can see it from your hotel room, they charge you $1,000.00 more a night." If you eat in a fancy restaurant, you get smaller portions, pay a fortune more, and wait twice as long to get served. And who cares if you hear the motor of the car you are driving in? If they blindfolded you, you wouldn't know the difference between an expensive car and a reasonably priced vehicle. He also spoke about the current campaign to get us to explore Mars. He said, "What if I told you I know a place, but there is nothing there. Would you say, 'Let's go!'?" Regarding prostitution, he mentioned that when a man courts a woman with the intention of having sex with her, everyone profits: the restaurant he took her to, the flower shop, the jewelry shop, etc., but if the girl makes a few bucks off the mutually agreed upon interaction, then the public views it as immoral and "disgusting." He says, "where's the victim if both parties are happy with the exchange. She gets a $100.00 and he gets a sure thing."

Jackie Mason may not be at the top of his game, but he is still very funny. The old Jackie Mason would have added material on Syria, Russia, Putin, Ukraine, the Iranian Nuclear Deal, and on all the Republican and Democratic Presidential Candidates. He would have been commenting on Kim Davis and making fun of all the new immigrants in the most shocking and politically incorrect way. However, that cutting edge material is missing from this show. He told one joke about Puerto Ricans, where he asks if the audience can think of one contribution a Puerto Rican has made to society. Then he quickly adds, "I can't either." He also had one joke about a stereotypical Mexican holding a broom outside a restaurant. He added, "That's not right. It's not always a Mexican holding a broom. Sometimes it's a Jew with a broom handing it to a Mexican." But these jokes were only remnants of the material told by the old Jackie Mason. Perhaps the fear of being blacklisted by the politically correct media and boycotted by special interest groups is now keeping him on the straight and narrow path of sticking only to white-washed older material. While he continues to use the word fagala in his act, there was nary a mention of a schwartze in the entire show. 

Perhaps he is afraid and maybe he is just too tired to continue to write new material, feeling he can coast to making some extra bucks off old fans by performing older material in secondary venues. In my opinion, he needs to write a new show updated with material ripped from the news and the current events section of newspapers. The old show will draw out old fans, but a new show could play on or off Broadway and make Jackie Mason fans out of a whole new generation of people who love to laugh. There is still a place in the world for the unique stylings of Jackie Mason! If you haven't seen Jackie Mason perform or haven't seen him live for a few years, catch one of his upcoming shows, which are listed on his website at www.JackieMason.com   

Applause! Applause! Review of Wallop at The Robert Moss Theater at 440 Studios by Nickolaus Hines

This review of Charles Cissel's Wallop at The Robert Moss Theatre at 440 Studios was written by Nickolaus Hines and published in Volume X, Issue 5 (2015) of the online edition of Applause! Applause!

Wallop
Written by Charles Cissel
Directed by Robin A. Paterson
Dramaturgy by Karen Brown
The Robert Moss Theater at 440 Studios
440 Lafayette Street, 3rd Floor
New York, New York 10003
Reviewed 10/18/15  

The three-part stage is already heating up on the left side of The Robert Moss Theater before the audience has even taken their seat. Three men in boxing gear are working out, their bodies glistening with sweat as late 80s hip hop pulsates over the speakers. Finally, an Ice Cube song starts up and two of the men start sparring in the ring while the other man directs from the floor. Starting en medias res of a sparring match sets an appropriate tone for the rest of the play. Back and forth, the characters are constantly sparring with fists and words. Someone is at someone else's throat at all points, and tensions rise quicker than they diffuse.

In the middle of all of the chaos and fighting is Gracie, played by Angelica Gregory, who steals the show. Gracie is the youngest, and only girl, in this black family. She struggles to accept her situation and circumstances. Her brother, Ivan, played by Duane N. Cooper, brings his new white friend Sam, played by Benjamin Katz, into the late 1980s Harlem. "Man oh man, walking along 125th Street. Bad idea," is one of Katz's first lines. "I'll pretend I'm not a white guy." If that line alone didn't cue the audience to how race tensions will play out, Ivan's father Joe, played by Jay Ward, and brother Mitch, played by Temesgen Tocruray, iron out any further questions. 

Despite being set nearly 30 years in the past, the pain, curiosity and questions about race are just as relevant today. Rather than seeing more differences in this representation of the past, there are more similarities in today's world where #BlackLivesMatter was needed as a rallying point for tragedy after tragedy, and #BlueLivesMatter and #AllLivesMatter arose from a segment of the population losing their stranglehold on American culture and politics. 

As if the issue of race wasn't already a large enough issue for writer Charles Cissel and director Robin A. Paterson to tackle, there is also the conflict of divorced families, with the new dad, Jesus, played by Wilton Guzman, being disrespected and referred to as Step. There's also conflict between a younger generation of dreamers and an older generation that is more practical and realistic. Also, thanks to being carried almost entirely on the shoulders of Gregory and the mother figure Suzy, played by Zuhairah, there's the conflict of women's rights and their role in the family.

It's all a lot to take in and a lot to think about. It's controversial, confrontational, and aggressive. What it isn't, however, is dull, overly serious or too heavily supported by easy stereotypes. All of the characters are strong and complex. Most have monologues that crack open the door inside their brain and allows a few shouts of internal conflict to escape. The lines of the monologues reflect more than just the characters' problems. They are also a vignette of the time period. Unfortunately, those vignettes of  the turbulent late 1980s are all too familiar and relatable to today. 

But don't think for a second that Wallop is all doom and gloom and serious pondering on the nature of society. It's comical in its representation of conflict, and laced in between it all is an on-your-toes Romeo and Juliet-style love story. 

Gregory"s Gracie is a commanding female in a male-dominated world who tells it how it is and doesn't take anything sitting down. Tocruray's Mitch just wants to banter and won't respect anyone, notably Katz's character, who doesn't give it back. Cooper's Ivan is so inherently likeable that it's hard not to hang on his every word. Sure, Guzman's Jesus and Ward's Joe represent some of the worst black father stereotypes, but they also give and take and expose themselves as men with deeper dimensions and a warrior spirit. Zuhairah's Suzy is happy-go-lucky as long as you don't disrespect her house, and Katz's Sam is so white at points that it hurts, but at least he's trying.

It's impossible not to love Wallop and its endless entertainment. The balance of deep pain and comedic relief is the mirror that society needs to address the hate and violence of today. I hope more people go to see this play. It stayed entertaining without being too preachy about the need for social change.

Wallop runs through October 31, 2015, Wednesdays through Saturday at 7:30 p.m., and Sundays at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $18.00 and are available at www.smarttix.com or by calling 212-868-4444.