Hillbilly hilarity: Less teeth - More cartwheels. Easy targets flattened like roadkill that have nowhere to hide.
The ‘play within a play’ can be an inventive canvas, albeit, when the former has something relevant to convey that impacts the latter. Not the case here. There is nothing to be learned, revealed or pondered. It’s just a hick sitcom for hick-sake.
As the playbill states, ‘It’s an intimate look at clashing egos on and off-stage, as a cast of misfits prepare to mount the story of small-town boy’s attempt to win a cheerleader’s heart.’ The boy, being the playwright, directing his upbringing for the stage.
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Love Hurts: May I have another? Love Hurts: May I have another?
Suicide- Abortion- Homosexuality: Aaahh youth!
Like a stiff salesman traveling thru Tulsa: Teens needs sex no matter what the face of fate.
This highly imaginative production paints a moral space as an illuminated womb where the only way out is by kicking and screaming. Is there anything more sensual than curiosity? A trio of youths rage to find romance hoping to conquer what their parents feared most: Satisfaction.
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AIR TRAFFIC: David Ryan Jordan, Jim Maddock, Tom Pritchard and Chris Wall
AIR TRAFFIC has burst onto the pop-rock scene with textured tempos and morose melodies that dare you dance and ignore your last call for love at 4am.
While standing outside an Italian restaurant in London’s most aromatic district. I caught up with AIR TRAFFIC band mate Chris Wall, who was quick to confide that although he’s the talker this time around, it’s Dave who’s the troublemaker — it’s Jim that’s diabolically devious. (All in good ‘brotherly love’ fun) and it’s the new fans that make being on tour an unexpected pleasure. With two back2back gigs slated for Los Angeles, (Avalon and Spaceland respectively) AIR TRAFFIC (on Capitol’s EMI label) are quickly catching nationwide attention.
Keep reading for their interview and concert information for their shows tonight and tomorrow in LA.
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Playwright: Jonathan Tolins
Directed by: Matt Shakeman
Starring: John Glover and Edward Tournier, Amy Aquino, Mark
Taylor and Bill Brochtrup (***) SECRETS OF THE TRADE presented by the Black Dahlia Theatre, tells the story of Andy Lipman a sparklingly ambitious kid from Long Island who dreams of a Broadway career. Through numerous wide-eyed letters to his idol Martin Kerner (portrayed by Tony Award winner, John Glover) young Lipman pleads for his mentorship. It’s time to play a little game of Frankenstein and the blind girl.
It does seem improbable that a half decade+ of compressed time would take Andrew through so many career highs and lows highlighted by sexual exploits â but what does remain hauntingly effective thru time lapse is the “hurry up and wait” fate of any entertainment career; revealed for what it is: How long can a 20-something pretend his life has not yet began?
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Buzzworks Theatre Company presents the West Coast premiere of INVASION OF THE MINNESOTA NORMALS written by Jen Ellison and directed by Melissa Denton.
Please note: Communists come thirsty for cocktails: Cordials and Lenin Squares are sold in the lobby by a bubbly 1950’s Stepford wife wearing a chin-strapped blonde wig. (I bet she’s packing an EZ Bake Oven)
To Sirk with Love: Poise, Turquoise and Secrets
A review by Craig Rafael Parish (3 out of 4 stars) A Must See
Think back to the day, where condoms came with cuff links. Filmmaker Douglas Sirk knew it well as re-imagined here in MINNESOTA. Beware the MMPI: The Minnesota Multi-phasic Personality Inventory Test that scored identity and social conformity by confining the parameters of thought for a ½ century or more. Somewhere between hope and despair lay the 1950s suburbs, where careers were defined by an isosceles office and by wives who faked Tupperware screams to give their husbands the confidence to face the morning commute.
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