LOUIS AND KEELY LIVE AT THE SAHARA
Thursday, September 25th, 2008
By the time Louis Prima met 16-year-old Keely Smith in the late 1940s, the 37-year-old Italian-American entertainer’s career had already undergone several transformations. In his teens and 20s, Prima had played trumpet in jazz combos and bands. In 1940, he formed his own Big Band, singing most of the vocals himself. By the time the 1950s rolled around, the Glenn Miller/Benny Goodman sound was passé, and “Louis Prima and Keely Smith” began their successful Las Vegas career, performing multiple shows from midnight until dawn.
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SEA CHANGE
Monday, September 22nd, 2008
The year is 1974 and a quintet of Tufts University friends have gone whale watching off the coast of Provincetown. Virginal conservative gay guy Val and liberal lesbian Jan are arguing about politics, Val contending to Jan’s absolute horror that “you can’t blame Nixon for Kent State.” Blond Adonis Sunny is stoned as usual, and arguing with feisty lesbian Elle on whether it’s TLGC (Tufts Lesbian and Gay Community) or TGLC, alphabetical order making more sense to Sunny as a gay male. Completing the fivesome is Sunny’s devout Catholic boyfriend Gene.
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RED SCARE ON SUNSET
Sunday, September 21st, 2008RECOMMENDED
No one spoofs classic Hollywood movie genres better than Charles Busch. Whether it be the Ross Hunter women’s pictures of the 1950s and 60s (Die! Mommie! Die!) or Frankie and Annette Beach Party flicks (Psycho Beach Party) or WWII spy epics (The Lady In Question), Busch knows his Hollywood backwards and forwards. The more his audience knows about movie styles and movie stars, the funnier Busch’s plays are, but even those not so familiar with names like 1950s TV staples Kate Smith, Dagmar, and Norman Vincent Peale will find laughs aplenty in Red Scare On Sunset, which lampoons (and pays tribute to) late 40s/early 50s red-baiting propaganda films like Red Menace, I Married A Communist, and My Son John.
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BE LIKE WATER
Wednesday, September 17th, 2008NOT RECOMMENDED
It’s not easy being 14, especially when you’re different from the other kids. That’s what Chinese-Japanese-American Tracy (Saya Tomioka) has discovered in her Uptown Chicago neighborhood in the year 1978. Unlike her popular classmate Tina (Ariel Rivera), an Asian teen Farrah Fawcett clone, Tracy would rather watch Bruce Lee movies than go to Nisei dances. Unlike her unfortunately named classmate Bruce Lee (Shawn Huang), Tracy would rather practice kung fu moves than dance the latest disco steps to “Disco Inferno” or “He’s The Greatest Dancer.”
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SUFFER THE LONG NIGHT
Sunday, August 24th, 2008
FLU EPIDEMIC STRIKES COMMUNITY THEATER
UNDERSTUDIES REPLACE 19 OUT OF 23 IN CAST
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THE PAVILION
Thursday, August 21st, 2008
As the strains of The Beatles “Across The Universe” fade, a young man appears on a bare black stage.
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deLEARious
Sunday, August 10th, 2008
Open Fist Theatre has come up with a winner in their World Premiere production of deLEARious, a Monty Python meets William Shakespeare delight of a musical within a musical within a musical.
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THE COMEDY OF ERRORS
Saturday, August 9th, 2008
Open Fist’s production of William Shakespeare’s The Comedy Of Errors may be the most fun I’ve ever had at a Shakespeare play, and that’s saying something for a Shakespeare-phobe like me. Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t really hate Shakespeare, and I have had fun at a Shakespeare play … a few times, at least. The trouble is that the Bard’s 16th Century English and tangled plotlines often go right over my head, or at least past my ears without really sinking in. Not so with Open Fist’s Comedy Of Errors. I’m not quite sure how they did it, but director Ron West and his cast of zanies have somehow clarified Shakespeare for me, archaic speech, convoluted storyline and all. The play’s 90 minutes (clearly some judicious snipping took place) just zipped by and I actually understood what was happening most of the time! I had a ball!
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