Number 25: April, 2002
by Carl F. Gauze
I have truly lived to see the amazing. In my youth, I haunted the cut-out bins and used record shops, looking for obscurities only heard late
at night on college stations with DJ’s so doped up you had to go down to
the station, break in, and wake them up to find the title of what they
had just played. Stuff like Iggy Pop, City Boy, Shel Silverstein, the
list is endless. Last week I was digging through the bins at Atomic
Records up in frozen Milwaukee, and there they were – the same records,
now released on special 185 gram Vinyl pressings from original masters.
For $30.00 a pop, today’s youth can buy back MY childhood. As Will
Eisner told me once, “No form of communication ever goes away. As one is
supplanted, that form becomes special, a forum for intellectual
discussion, appreciated only by the select few.” Live music gave way to
discs and then digits just as theater retreated before movies and now
television. Someone still has something to say, let’s listen in…<p>Around the World In 80 Days
By Mark Brown
Directed by Russell Treyz
Starring Eric Hissom, Richard Width, Philip Nolen, Brad DePlanche
Orlando UCF Shakespeare, Orlando Fla</b><p>
They say getting there is half the fun, but when your heading to the place you started from, it’s all the entertainment. Eccentric Phileas Fogg (Width) is slightly less interesting than a 2 by 4, but when a causal conversation about the new travel technology of 1872 comes up, he instantly bets all he has he can get around the world and back to the reform club in a small but precisely specified time period. He grabs his new servant Passepartout (DePlanche) and head off to the Suez, pursued by the inimitable Detective Fixx (Hissom) Fixx is convinced that Fogg is bank robber, and need to nab him to go on to the next pinnacle of his miserable career. It’s a mad dash to India, where Fogg takes a few hours to rescue beautiful Aouda (Margi Sharp) from a suttee fire. He does his level best to ignore her charms as they charge on to America, New York, and back to Jolly Old England where Fixx finally exercises his warrant and arrests Fogg. Does he miss the rendezvous with cash? He thinks so, until the final Plot Point appears – Victorians had a very fuzzy view of the International Date Line, and since they were chasing the sun and not reading the papers or going to church, they’ve snuck home a day early. Huzzah!
Well, ignore the navigation and relish the characters. This mad cap chase plays out on a small stage set with 4 chairs and a table, and with more enthusiasm than most 6 years olds can muster, the cast turns them into boats, building, elephants and opium dens. At the calm center of this maelstrom is Fogg, who barley shows any emotion even when confessing his love to Aouda. Bouncing off of him like excited nitrogen atoms are a host of locals, mostly played by the incredibly versatile Philip Nolen, a man who can fall flat on his back in his own length, and swing his arm around in a salute that might cause elbow damage. DePlanche’s Passepartout (pass key, to those of you who forgot your French) is every bit as Tigger bouncy, even rolling out a cartwheel to exit stage right. Between these guys and Hissom’s spiffy comic timing, there wasn’t a joked that missed, although most of the audience seemed mystified when Passepartout correctly pronounced “Illinois”
This is one of the most tightly wound comedies UCF Shakespeare has ever pulled off. As a product of their Play lab reading series, it shows the value some friendly audience review early on. A tight script coupled with a production that focused entirely on characterization and timing pulls Verne’s novel into the new millennium, making “80 Days” a trip you should all take.<p>
for more information on UCF-Shakespeare, visit > http://www.shakespearefest.org/ <p>
Fuddy Mears
By David Lindsay-Albaire
Directed By Bill Welter
Starring Elizabeth Curtis, Kevin Bee, Michael Aiello, Peter Hurtgen, Jr.
Theater Downtown, Orlando, Fla</b><p>
Sure, we all forget things – keys, glasses, Mothers Day, but not dear Claire (Curtis). She forgets everything, every day. Suffering from Psychogenic Amnesia, she learns things, only to forget them every time she goes to sleep. Hubby Richard (Bee) keeps a little notebook for her to review every morning, but today a mysterious Limping Man (Hurtgen) with a deformed ear crawls out from under the bed and takes her away to her mother’s house. Mother Gertie (Jan Peterson) had a little stroke, and talks funny, but she knows Limpy well enough. There they hook up with Millet (Michael Aiello) and his hand puppet Binky, and plan to head to Canada. Meanwhile, Richard takes their attitudinally-infected son Kenny (Derek Parker) in search of Claire. When pulled over for smoking dope in a 55 zone by sweaty officer Heidi (Nicole Carson), they take her gun, kidnap her, and head over to mom’s to join the fun. Here Claire, as mystified as you are by all this, is slowly extracting a confession out of Binky as to what happened, why she’s amnesiac, and why Limpy hates bacon. That puppet is nothing but a stool pigeon, and eventually gets his due when Gertie hacks it to death with a grapefruit knife.
Is there a point to all this? Most certainly. Rather than let you know that the butler did it, I’ll leave you in suspense as well, because I had to sit down with graph paper afterwards and straighten all this out in my mind. Despite the mutilation, it’s a tight comedy once it gets rolling. Aiello and his potty mouth buddy Binky steal the show, although it’s a close caper when compared to Parker’s Kenny and his non-stop attitude. Hurtgen takes on a lisp, a bad ear, and a bad eye all in the name of art, and keeps you guessing as to who he really is and why he wants to steal off with a woman who obviously will never get his birthday right. All these unpleasant people just sort of pass by bouncy Claire, who has a really good view about getting her Big Red Switch reset every day. Gertie’s speaks with a lingo that needs a stoke dictionary to understand, but when she starts ripping into Binky, the crowd goes wild. And in my book, any show that kills a hand puppet is all right.
For more information, please visit<p> www.theatredowntown.net <p>
Little Shop of Horrors
Music by Alan Menken
Book & Lyric by Howard Ashman
Directed by Mark Mannette
Starring Terry Mullenix, Courtney Falk, Barry Stein, Heath Boyer, Michael Colavolpe
Center Players and JCC, Maitland Fla</b><p>
Obsessive gardening can be just as dangerous as any other hobby. Look at poor Seymour (Mullenix). Despite a dead end job in a dead end flower shop on a dead end street on skid row, he’s bred a plant that not only attracts attention, but demands blood in a Faustian bargain that he soon regrets. Unclear as to what species, phylum, or genus his protégé Audrey II might be, he learns one thing fast – fame and fortune and cute girl friend demand more than he is ready to supply. It’s starts small – a few drops of unneeded blood, a sadistic dentist (Boyer), maybe his elderly Jewish boss Mushnik (Stein), but sooner or later he has to toss the Audrey I (Falk) he loves into the maw of fame and fortune, and eventually it consumes him as well. And you thought Michael Jackson had it tough.
For a play based on a movie based on a bet, there’s a fair amount of good material here in this musical version of the Corman flick. Our two leads, Mullenix and Falk, have fine voices and belt out some great duets, and occasionally the entire cast pulls together for a blockbuster like “Skid Row”. Supporting Bag Lady and newscaster Maria Adessa is part of the fun, and Audrey II’s voice (Colavolpe) has a great black and blues twang. Unfortunate the chorus of Chiffon, Roomette, and Crystal can’t seem to get together and select a common key, and when they sing, you sort of hope they keep it down to a mild hum. The net result is one of the more inconsistent shows I’ve seen in a while – sometimes you want to cheer, and sometime you want to cringe. It’s not all bad, and the steadily growing Audrey II keeps you hanging in through the tough spots, even as the cast succumbs to an evil photosynthesis. It’s like dating a semi-sadist with really nice hair – you know he’s bad for you, but you look so goods when he’s not assaulting you. Bring your nitrous.<p>
Purlie Victorious
Written by Ossie Davis
Directed by Ray Hatch
Starring Wiley “Skeet” Oscar, Trenell Mooring, Maria Buford, Lieutenant Patterson
People’s Theatre, Orlando Fla</b><p>
Praise the Lord and pass the Civil Rights! Big Bethel Baptist church is closed, and reopening this firetrap of a barn is the goal of knock-about Purlie Victorious Judson (Oscar). All he needs is the $500 coming to him through inheritance, money held by mean old Cap’n Cotchippe (Butch Connor). The claim is almost legit, even though one of the parties to the transaction died somewhere along the line. No matter, Purlie rounded up a girl who almost looks the part, tiny Lutiebelle Jenkins (Mooring). Can she pass for a college girl with some quick coaching by Purlie? If so, they can pull the wool over the Cap’ns eyes and get the money. If not, it’s a beating for sure, maybe jail or worse for cheating a white man. And after all, it’s not like they can sue the Cap’n. Before they can make a case to the Cap’n, Purlie needs the help of Gitlow Judson (Patterson), Deputy to the Colored Folk. What’s that? No one knows, but he is the best cotton picker on the farm, and Cap’n might sort of listen to him. All it takes to bring him around is the gentle persuasion of wife Missy Judson (Beauford) and her gentle Louisville Slugger. Things go swimmingly until Lutiebelle signs the wrong name on a receipt, and then it’s up to the Cap’ns half wit liberal son to get Big Bethel in the hands of Purlie. He’s dumber than a box of grits, but his heart is in the right place.
There’s a message buried behind the rigorous jumping and jiving of the cast, but it’s not as much fun as Purlie’s conniving and Gitlow’s sucking up to the Captain or Lutibelle’s attempts to sound refined. There’s never a slow moment as the blacks try to out psych the whites and the white try to keep the blacks in line. I particularly liked Gitlow as the man who was nominally in charge of his house and the work crew, but really didn’t even control his own pants. Then there’s Idella Landy (Clair Mackey), housekeeper and implied lover of Charlie, who certainly knew how to control white folks though fine cooking. It doesn’t sound like much, but she knew how to pull the right strings to get her way. Too bad Connor’s Cap’n lacked the right mean streak his character demanded, and Grogan’s Charlie was such a buffoon.
Religion has always been a important element of social change or social stagnation, and the Cap’n knew that a church he didn’t control was no way to keep his little kingdom alive in the changing south. And Purlie wasn’t so much in touch with God as he was with Martin Luther King, but he knew what his people needed, even if they didn’t. Enlightenment is so hard sometimes – you often have to beat into the deserving.
More information is available at <a href = www.peoplestheatre.org> www.peoplestheatre.org</a>
Moon Over Buffalo
By Ken Ludwig
Directed by S. Joseph Nassif
Starring Greg London – Williams, Danielle Fernandez, Erin Salem
Annie Russell Theater, Winter Park Fla.</b><p>
Buffalo. I can’t believe they’re still stuck in Buffalo. In a town lacking the charms of 1953 Scranton, the washed up Hay Troupe pounds out rep theater – “Cyrano “on odd days, “Private Lives” on the even ones. It’s work, but it’s not really a living. George (London) tried out for a movie roll, but Ronald Coleman tested better and had the right demographic. Charlotte’s role went to some other hoity toity Hollywood type – oh, how the mighty have fallen! Back when Vaudeville was alive, the Hay family ruled Times Square. Now they’re stuck eking it out as the cast quits one by one, all for lack of pay. Charlotte’s nearly deaf mother Ethel (Salem) does the mending and the laundry, while their daughter Rosalind (Laura Moss) has fled to advertising, but drops by to introduce her weatherman fiancé Harold (David Cohen). She finds her ex boyfriend Paul (Robert Haslett) hanging on as stage manger, and George has impregnate one of the other cast members Eileen (Erin Muroski). As Charlotte packs up to dump George, the news arrives that Ronald Coleman has broken both legs and two juicy rolls are open. Can this patch up their marriage, or better yet their career? Will Rosalind get back with Paul? Can they sober up George so Frank Capra can see him act? How many doors ARE the on this set?
“Moon” is a classic French farce, replete with slamming doors, mistake identities, quick gropes between the sexes at every change, and an absolutely hysterical play within a play as drunken and confused casts mixes 20th century Noel Coward with the swashbuckler of the French Revolution. George and Charlotte have a great chemistry, built on a solid foundation of martial infidelity and hammy acting, and the deaf-when-convenient Ethel drops a constant string of vitriolic one lines. The rest of the cast keeps up with the furious pace of slamming doors, split pants, and general foolishness in the sleazy Green Room of the fading and soon to be a grind house Erlanger Theater. It’s a high energy, fast paced comedy that mixes comic romance with theatrical in jokes, but never to the point that you notice the timing but don’t get the joke. It’s worth the trip, not only to see Fernandez in her Merry Widow get up, but to remind us all that without theater, we’d all be Republicans. <p>
No Shame Theatre
Hosted by Heather McGraw
Mood Swing Café
Orlando, Fla </b><p>
As interest in local theater grows, it’s nice to know there is a place to get a good discussion on the internal structure of an opera based on dodecaphonic serial music and a space alien with a split personality. Yes, it’s the theatrical equivalent of Open Mike Night for writers, set in the funky yet noise atmosphere of a neighborhood hole-in-the-wall café. The exact program varies from night to night, as aspiring writers and actors try out new material, some subtle, some destined to painful obscurity, but always material that challenges the viewer perception and ability to hear low sounds in high ambient noise.
Over the course of an hour or so, we saw a reading called “Mall of the Afterlife” presented by our perky Hostess Cupcake of the evening, Ms. McGraw. Eternity isn’t what you thought – it’s a big mall, and you either come in through Ruby Tuesday’s or the Burger King, depending on your life’s merit. God is a big fan of shopping, and if you’ve been good, the sales are to die for, and if you’ve been bad, your credit card is over limit. Following this was the slightly opaque “Trying to take over the world” read by Isabella Maia and Matt, whose last name I careful neglected to note. It was a bit hard to follow what was said due to a dropped tray and poor projection, so while the merits of the work remain unknown. Then it was on to a bit of Fringe rehearsal, with a read through of “True Love”, a truly minimalist work. With only 50 words of dialog and 50 of direction, it allows the actors full range to make something out of a wire coat hanger of a script. Ah, minimalism – it’s the least you can do.
After a few more segments of Works In Progress, a few interesting violin pieces by Craig Grasso, and it was time to settle up for dinner and discuss existentialism. While nothing was well polished, the experience is a peek into the act of writing and then making it pop into drama, and worth a visit on a Wednesday night. Aspiring writers and under employed actors are sought, and the food is pretty good. <p>
For more information, contact TheCultofHeather(at)aol.com.<p>
As Thousands Cheer!
By Moss Hart and Irving Berlin
Directed by Alan Bruun
Piano by Jason Wetzel</b><p>
Sure. It’s 1933 and your shoes are cardboard and you haven’t eaten since July. So what? SOMEone’s having fun, and you can take a peek as this musical newspaper unfolds across the Mad Cow runway. Why, there’s Mahatma Gandhi (Jay Becker) on a new hunger strike, with that Pat Robertson of the 20’s Aimee Semple McPherson (Gail Bartell) out to cook a boffo box office deal with Mr. Passive Resistance himself. Then there good old (and we do mean old) J.D. Rockefeller Sr. (Michael Andrew) griping about the present he got for making it to 94 – that nasty old Rockefeller Center, the one that would go one to cost poor old Sam Zell so much money. And hey, what about that looser engineer-for-a-president Herby Hoover (Rick Stanley)? He and wifey Lou (Gail Bartell) have 30 minutes left in the White House, and with free long distance, it’s time to settle some scores. It’s not like there coming back anytime soon. And who can forget scantily clad Josephine Backer (DeOnzell Green), toast of gay Parèe? She’s a bit over clothed tonight, and has way too much underwear for a proper Follies Berge babe, but then this is a family show, isn’t it? That’s why they have Lucy Carney sing “Tropical Heat Wave” in those tight silk hot pants you haven’t seen in public since 1974.
Fast and fun, “1000 Cheers” is a great little cabaret show tucked into the maroon walled Mad Cow space. Not only is there an elegant piano tinkler (Jason Wetzel) and wine for sale, but the voices on stage are some of the best we have in central Florida. Michael Andrew heads Swingerhead, a local sensation, and Ms. Green has a fine operatic voice that fills in when needed with out drowning us in high C when we don’t need to hear that sort of thing. With it’s solid mix of singing, dancing and talking< “1000 Cheers” is more than sufficient reason to get out of that old soup line and get a little pick me up. Remember, it’s only a few months till the USA comes to it’s senses and repeals prohibition!<p>
For more informatin on Mad Cow, please vist <a href=www.madcowtheatre.com> www.madcowtheatre.com </a>
‘Dentity Crisis
By Christopher Durang
Directed by Scott Boorish
Starring Chrissy Morales, Natalie Weiss, Scott Boorish
Impacte! Productions, Orlando Fla</b><p>
Sure, you THINK you’re crazy, but does your mother claim to have invented cheese? Is your therapist getting a sex change operation? Do you confuse your grandfather with your brother? HAH! I thought not! You’re not crazy, you’re just depressed. REAL crazy people see things and talk to you about them on the bus. Jane (Morales) is in the professional loony camp. What set her off on the road to Thorazine is fuzzy, but the traumatic experience of children’s theater may have triggered this seratonin-induced hallucination. By doubting Fairies exist, she may have doomed Tinker Bell to an early curtain, and now mother Edith Fromage (Weiss) is trying to drag her out of a funk that led her to slash her thighs in an ill conceived suicide attempt. Brother Robert (Boorish) might really be her dad or her grandpa, or mom’s aristocratic French lover, but that’s not as bad as her shrink Mr. Summer (Brian Nolan) who gets one of those Danish makeovers to spice up his marriage. He looks OK in a dress, but is still dealing with the wrong parts / wrong places problem. Jane, meanwhile, can’t turn of the noise in her head. Believe me, she has a LOUD family.<p>
Glib as that explanation may be, Denity is a zippy absurdist mélange of Technicolor people inhabiting Jane’s one-dimensional world. It’s loud, abrupt, and captures the pulsing intrusion of reality that this poor woman feels as no one will leave her along, not for a minute. Edith is a cranked up June Cleaver, relentlessly positive and smart in her polka dot dress, and Boorish pops back and forth between his 4 parts with enough snap to keep the roles separate but real in the minds of the audience, if not in the mind of Jane. The play is short, frenetic, and contains clear instructions as to what is happening at the end, but even after the curtain call, I hung around for a while, feeling that the cast would pop back on stage and do something else, even after half the audience went home. Call me insecure, but THAT would have been an absurdist moment!<p>
Much Ado About Nothing
By Wm. Shakespeare
Directed by Michael Carlton
Starring Eric Hissom, Suzanne O’Donnell, Mindy Anders
Orlando UCF Shakespeare Festival at Lake Eola</b><p>
One might suspect something when the Bard pairs up everyone with the mate of their dreams by the 3rd scene of the 1st act. Was he bored with the mistaken identity gag, or just trying to expand his comedic horizons? We have Hero (Anders) and Claudio (Arik Basso) betrothed already, and Benedick (Hissom) and Beatrice (O’Donnell) cordially agreeing to hate one another till the last reel. How ho hum, even with the Hissom’s slightly rude name. But Wait! Who’s the cranky bald guy in black? Why, it’s Don John (Scott Coopwood), bastard brother to Don Pedro (Mark rector), and he doesn’t LIKE happiness. He wants to see Hero and Claudio split, and he doesn’t care how. Now, why is this? Hard to say, he must just like acting like a bastard! While he plots with servant Borachio (Tim Williams), the rest of the cast makes a wager of a bazillion ducats that Benedick and Beatrice can be seduced by each other with out their knowledge. They split into teams and take turns feeding romantic baloney to the pair as they eavesdrop. As good Shakespearian lovers they swallow it H,L and S. Wedding bells are gonna chime until Borachio’s plot comes home, and everyone who matters thinks Hero is fooling around on the side. Rejected by Claudio, the family fakes her death to get the bad guys to confess. All is lost until the captain of the watch Dogberry (Brad DePlanche) saves the day by catching Borachio and innocent Conrade (Mike Marinaccio) and accidentally wrangling a confession. Now all that remains is to resurrect Hero. It seems her uncle has an EXACT REPLICA of her, and despite audience protestations, she’ll do just as well as the original. If Claudio will just shut up and marry, everyone can get some sleep, including Benedick and Beatrice.<p>
OK, the plot is contrived and motivations are a bit faint. The genius of the production lies in ignoring all the problems, and charging forward with the physical and sexual silliness wherever and whenever possible. When people are supposed to be hiding, they sort of hold up a potted plant of invisibility and poof, no one can see them. Hissom has a hysterical time hiding behind a grape vine and doing the old Tres Imbiciles gag of posing as a statue. Undoubtedly the funniest moments came a Dogberry goose-stepped around as a stubby napoleon, directing his assistants Oatcake (Kimberly Luffman), Seacoal (Ritchie Vadnie), and Verges (Mike Dressel) to remember that he was, in fact an ass. When a joke rolled around that still resonated with modern audience, it’s worked to the max, and all the jokes that only the Eng. Lit. PhD’s get, are forgotten. Dance numbers are transposed into anachronistic styles, much to the amusement of some, and falling down is highly encouraged. The one thing I noticed about ‘Ado’ is its lack of memorable quotes. Nearly every Shakespearean play harbors a few lines that have slipped into the popular conscience, but the best we could find here is a reference to fashion mongering boys, and a crack about putting a bugle in an invisible room. Bring a blanket and a thermos of coffee, and see what nothing is all about, and don’t expect anyone to engage in swordplay. Not with the ones on their hips, anyway.<p>
Earth and Sky
Written by Douglas Post
Directed by Karen Copp
Starring Leia Corbett, Stephen Pugh, Rick Paulin
Seminole Community College Fine Arts Theater</b><p>
Snappy dialog plus moody lighting plus slouch hats equal Stage Noir. Poetic Sara McKeon (Corbett) is swept away by mysteriously handsome Davis Ames (Pugh). He runs a restaurant and is tight lipped about what he does off stage until a little lead poisoning leaves him in the bottom of a dumpster. Greasy detective Horace “Hey! Just use the initial!” Webber (Paulin) finds the easy answer, but she’s not buying it. Despite a tendency to over analyze Dylan Thomas, she quickly becomes an independent gumshoe with one assignment – find the truth about Ames and his sudden demise. From the safety of the library she steps into world of people who will never live to see an SS check – heart of gold Barkeep Billie Hart (Ansley Goodrich), Carl “Iceman” Eisenstadt (Marcus Carrasquillo), mustard loving hit man Julius Gatz (George Patages), and the mandatory coffee swilling dumb cop Kernowski (Ryan Haskins). As she delves into her own work, she comes closer to both truth and death. Webber tries to seduce her, not for the sex but to keep her at bay – he knows more than he’s putting in the police reports. By curtain, we get two plot twists and a pile of bodies suitable for a Shakespearean tragedy. That girl wised up quick for and English major.<p>
The tale leads through the magical underworld of a spare, expressionistic stage. Continuously varying pools and washes of light silhouette the actors, then morph into intimate pools of individual threats. The text floating up from the pools is snappy enough, but never extracts the tension inherent in the narrative. The lighting is surely more dramatic than the acting, but it alone is worth the trip. Still, everyone looks good, with Paulin’s Webber reminding me of my first (and only) public disturbance bust. Corbett has the right figure and look for this tale of misplaced murder, and Goodrich looks like she ought to run a biker bar in Oak Hill. A little less politeness would help – people under stress step on each other’s lines, and you need to pack a lot of words into the Noir style, and pack ‘em tight, to get the effect of looming menace. Justice might be an accident, but threats always need to be intentional.
Steel Magnolias
Written by Robert Harling
Directed by Denis Enos
Spirit Daddy Productions at Impacte! Theater, Orlando Fla</b><p>
Men have the locker room, and women have the beauty salon. Both have a characteristic odor that keeps out the other party, allowing some privacy from the other team. Down in Chicapen Parish, Louisiana, some of the movers and shakers hang out in Truvy’s Beauty Spot. There’s Claree Belcher (Beth Marshall), widow of the towns ex-mayor, Ouiser Boudreaux (Bobbie Cross) who makes “feisty” an understatement, and Truvy herself, working to support a couch slug hubby by tinting and trimming. Wispy Annelle (Tina Moroni) shows up one day, fleeing from the husband who left her and maybe isn’t even legally hers. The real action revolves around chipper Shelby (Lauren O’Quinn) whose heading for marriage, and her controlling momma M’Lynn (Melanie Graham). Shelby has diabetes, and the prospect of a family is a dim risk that might cost her everything. When she rolls the dice, they come up snake eyes and she loses not just her kidneys, but so much more than that as well.<p>
The show I saw was the “talk along” version – audience members where encouraged to shout out lines they knew to help the cast. Having never saw the movie, I found it unnerving to hear how much of this film people could recite by heart. Audience participation was strongest in the rollicking first act but faded away by the 3rd. I can’t say if this was due to the mounting Great Tragedy in Shelby’s life, or to the curiously flat reading that act received. The sharp characterization and tight comedic timing slipped away, with that cast dispiritedly reading lines as if for the first time. That phase passed, with the close back to the high standards of the first, and with the audience rejoining the silliness. <p>
It’s always a little fashionable to mock the rural south, but the mocking on Magnolias is friendly. No one is truly nasty; even as the stereotypes capture true-life people I’ve met myself. Marshals’ Claree is warm and sympathetic, and O’Quinn’s Shelby perfectly capture the girl on top of the small town food chain – her big worries, beside the boring medical stuff, involved big hair, big games, and the ability to twirl fire batons in public. And honorable mention goes to Moroni’s portrait of a lost little girl who turns her life around by discovering Jesus, and making all her friends wish she hadn’t – a perfect example of a Hard Chair Baptist. Despite the 3rd act, this show was a moving tribute to the women who believe there is no such thing as natural beauty. Beauty is as lacquer does.<p>
Fringe Fundraisers
Assorted Venues
Orlando, Fla </b><p>
Normally, this column has a retrospective slant – I don’t write about things until they occur. Here’s an exception – the Orlando Fringe Festival suffered a devastating fire a few weeks ago, and lost a bunch of equipment, lights, and all the dumb little doodads they need to operate. While most of this stuff looked like (and may well be) refugees from a yard sale, all of it needs replacement in the next few weeks to pull off the biggest theater event this burg has. Fringe is holding 3 fundraisers in the next few weeks to keep going, and while I can’t say where they will be good, bad, or just surreal, I recommend you attend one or all of them. I’ll be there; I’m the bald guy in the alcohol themed Hawaiian shirt. <p>
The first event is Wednesday, April 10 from 6 pm to 8 pm – a Happy Hour Benefit at One Eyed Jack’s (Downtown Orlando, Orange Ave. between Wall St. and Central Blvd.) Cost is $10, which gets you free beer, food and entertainment along with a fabulous raffle. How fabulous, we will see, but you can blow $10 in a bar and still drive home legally, so this is a deal.
Then drop by the Rock Benefit at The Back Booth lounge (Downtown Orlando, on Pine St. between Orange Ave and Garland) on Saturday, April 20 from 9 pm to 2 am. For $5 covers see two fascinating bands, Where’s Moo, and Dirty Candy. Schmooze the crowd. Dress in black. Dye your hair. Wear really dark glasses as you stumble to your car. Convince yourself your actually hip. It works for me.
And for those of you with gallery walls in one of those oh so trendy downtown lofts, pick up some décor at the Art Supports Art Art Auction at Creative Stages (663 Harold Ave. It’s south of Fairbanks between I-4 and 17/92) That will be Sunday, April 28 from 3 pm to 6 pm. Creative Stages is one of Orlando’s newest venues, an this is a good time to scope it out so you can get there when shows start running for real. It’s in that weird little industrial area behind Publix, so you know it’s authentic. You might even see some pieces from my personal collection of Bad Art. Of course, we all know that there’s no such thing as Bad Art, unless you bought it while your wife was on vacation and it doesn’t match the couch. Mine didn’t.
If you read this column regularly, you know what Fringe means to Orlando. You sent money to Bosnia, now it’s time to help at home. And tell Chris I sent you.
For more up to date information on the Orlando Fringe Festival, visit <a href = www.orlandofringe.org> www.orlandofringe.com </a>. You’d think they would be a “.org”, but their not.
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof
By Tennessee Williams
Directed by Frank Hilgenburg
Starring Lauren Harn-Rohner, Roger Greco, Jim Cassidy
Theatre Downtown, Orlando, Fla</b><p>
Big Daddy (Cassidy) has a problem. Well, two, really – there’s that
pesky terminal cancer, and then there’s disposing of 50 square miles of
fertile Delta farmland. Plan A passes it to son Gooper (Michael Funaro),
nice enough as a lawyer but a real suck-up as a son, and with his wife
Mae (Gloria Sicoli), they’ve spawned at least 3 darling little hellions
that Big Daddy despises. Plan B sends it to Brick (Greco), who can drink
like Billy Carter but won’t sleep with his hot looking wife, Maggie. He
mourns Skipper, his best buddy from school who died from medical
malpractice a few years ago. Brief moments in the sun faded as injuries
wiped out their football careers, leaving only their strong friendship to
prop each other up. Maggie (Harn) flirts around in her slip and gets
half the audience interested, but Brick’s preserving Skipper’s memory in
a brain full of alcohol. God, he’s such a dumb jock. Thus, big Daddy’s
dilemma – leave Gooper the goods, let Brick drink it up, or buy a cat
and leave it all to the ASPCA.<p>
Loud and overbearing, Big Daddy rules the roost. Sure, everyone lied to
him about the cancer to get through his birthday party, but he’s still
the boss. In his perma-wrinkle suit, he blasts his way past everyone,
including his clucking wife Big Mama (Joan Gay). What he’d really like
is either a grandson by Brick or at least some sign of sentient thought
on Brick’s part – children are the only immortality here, and if you
don’t pop a few out, people might think you’re gay, or impotent, or
worse. <p>
There’s a lot to see on stage – Harn’s desperate sexuality, Cassidy’s
attempt to overpower death by sheer force of will and loud talking,
Greco’s thorazine and bourbon-inspired impassivity as he clings to a
faded past. Big Mama (and Daddy) reminds me of several older southern
moneyed couples I know – he’s piously rude, and she’s rudely pious. For
a drama about death and familial decay, it’s seriously funny with good
support from John Kelly as Doc Baugh, family physician, and Harold
Longway as the useless and uncomfortable Rev. Tooker. Theater Downtown
always seems to do its best work when Southern decay and debauchery are
onstage, and this is one of the best I’ve seen in a long time.<p>
For more information, please visit<a href
=”http://www.theatredowntown.net”>
www.theatredowntown.net </a></i></i></a>