New Spoof at The Alley Is Entertaining Rendition of Classic Movie

Top Secret

Screenplay by Jim Abrahams, Martyn Burke, Jerry and David Zucker
Adapted for the stage by Joey Arena
Directed by Joey Arena and Todd Zeigler

A review by Kate Barry

Entire contents are copyright © 2013 Kate Barry. All rights reserved.

How many times have we seen a movie become a play? Broadway is currently obsessed with this concept, it seems. I myself performed in an obscure movie-turned-play in college. The idea is simple:  Take a movie and thrust it on to stage with fingers crossed that people will recognize the title and be curious and familiar enough to buy a ticket. Add some light cues, pay some copyrights, and before you know it, you’ve got yourself a production. The Alley Theater has played with this concept many times over the recent years, transforming movies like The Princess Bride, Evil Dead and, for some reason, Point Break into full-on stage productions. Currently, the folks at the Alley are taking on Top Secret, a parody of spy and espionage movies as well as teeny bopper flicks of the ’60s written and directed by the Zucker Brothers – you know, the guys who made Airplane! and Naked Gun, which formed a genre of comedy smeared in the utmost silly goofiness? Director Joey Arena took this spoof and transferred the gags, puns and parody onto the stage in what he calls in his director’s notes a “unique piece of entertainment”; and right he was!

For those unfortunate to have never seen the movie starring a very young blonde Val Kilmer, do not fret because almost all jokes remain true to the movie as does style of costumes, blocking and even choreography. Yes, there is singing and dancing and it is in fact Kilmer’s voice. For those who are true fans of the movie and can quote every line uttered by Nick Rivers, Hillary and Nigel, there will be a few moments that might make you cringe. Notable scenes from the film that were classic pieces of comedic genius miss the cut on the way to the stage. Where The Alley Theater could have dressed their actors in a cow costume and staged some hilarious blocking, instead the audience was left to watch the scene on a screen with lines dubbed by off-stage actors. Another choice that fell short in its transference involves a scene where dialogue and movement are backwards. Although we hear and see the dialogue on film, incorporating live actors mouthing the words from a recorded track and moving backwards fails in comparison to what was considered cutting-edge for 1984.

Throughout the entire play, a screen flashes images from scenes from the Zucker Brothers film. As mentioned above, this sometimes hinders the performance; other times it is fully embraced and works beautifully. One scene that stands out involves the pivotal plan for a rescue mission:  The cast circles around Todd Ziegler as Nigel the ringleader who uses a stick to point out the actions. This scene has crafted timing and movement that utilizes the scene it corresponds with on the screen. Other cleverly timed scenes include a musical number involving the ensemble in a song about surf shooting as well as an underwater saloon fight. What make these scenes successful are the details placed to make each joke work – hook, line and sinker. This amount of care and attention matches the Zucker Brothers’ outlandish and oftentimes over-the-top spectacle in every scene.

The Alley Theater serves up the laughs with this show. Each cast member holds his or her own with dialogue rich in puns and one-liners. Riker Hill as Nick Rivers was particularly strong in the rock-and-roll numbers as he moved his hips and swiveled around the stage, as was his dry delivery of dialogue. Jamie Shannon as Hillary was a standout as Nick’s love interest; here is a comedic actress who definitely has a knack for timing. Todd Zeigler was a key player as well. Regardless if he was a background dancer for Nick Rivers or standing center stage wearing tattered island garb as Nigel, this is one dedicated actor. As for the rest of the cast, I extend many kudos for the exhausting costume changes, energy and devotion it takes to keep the jokes fresh as if saying them for the first time, a standard rule for actors one and all.

So in conclusion, even if you have never heard of the film by the Zucker brothers or if you know every line and can sing every word of “How silly can you get,” The Alley Theater has put together an entertaining rendition of a comedic classic.

Top Secret

May 17-June 1, 2013

The Alley Theater

1210s Franklin Street

Louisville, KY 40206

502-713-6178
TheAlleyTheater.org

The Naughty Fun of “Great American Sex Play” from Louisville Repertory Company Is Surprisingly Thought-Provoking

 

Casandre Elyse Medal, Felicia Corbett, Tamara Dearing, Corey Long,
Zachary Burrell and Richie Goff in Great American Sex Play.
Photo – Louisville Repertory Company.

Great American Sex Play

Written by Brian Walker 

Directed by Gil Reyes

Reviewed by Keith Waits

Entire contents are copyright © 2013, Keith Waits. All rights reserved.

Brian Walker is a clever enough writer that I think it no accident that this play title forms the acronym GASP. Or perhaps it is, since the title is so bold and declarative of its intentions that I could easily imagine it popping into one’s imagination fully formed – that the delicious acronym would so easily follow only confirming the power of the inspiration.

The play itself, here being given a second mounting by Louisville Repertory Company some six years after its premiere, is every bit as bold as the title, taking on a Very Big Topic (the nature of inherent sexual identity) in a vastly entertaining and adult manner that will delight many and scandalize some, although anyone scandalized by something called Great American Sex Play clearly wasn’t paying attention. Still, it is bound to happen, and if it does, the cast and crew should accept it as a measure of their success. This production is provocative with a capital “P” and proud of it.

GASP pulls the idea of a sex study out of the mid-century image of white lab coats and deposits it into the trappings of a game show (think Who Wants To Be a Millionaire). While Kinsey or Masters and Johnson strove to establish a serious, scientific atmosphere for what the general public imagined was a smutty business, this play embraces a reimagining of the sex study as a randy and Machiavellian endeavor that that does not objectively observe sexual behavior but instead seeks to influence it. It would be a disservice to say more about the plot, which manages to surprise us with its spin on liberal sexual mores while staying true to its core values of freedom and tolerance.

The cast attacks the material with gusto, bringing subtlety and nuance to characters who threaten to be representative mouthpieces if not exactly stereotypes. It is a tight ensemble who are asked to do some daring things onstage and never shirk from the task. Richie Goff, Zachary Burrell and Corey Long are the male subjects in the study, while Casandre Elyse Medel, Tamara Dearing and Jessica May are the women. All have fine moments onstage, yet I must say that Mr. Long and Ms. Dearing seemed to discover some deeper, sadder truths in their characters that linger in my mind a bit more. It also should be noted that Ms. May, originally cast as one of the freaky attendants monitoring the subjects, was pressed into service for the larger role of one of the subjects after another cast member was taken suddenly ill the day of the opening performance. Forced to take the stage with script in hand, the actress acquitted herself admirably, never allowing the pages to distract from the action (indeed, I soon forgot she had them) and delivering a robust and vivid characterization. As to whether it will be Ms. May in other performances or the ailing Felicia Corbett remains to be seen. I would be interested to see Ms. Corbett’s work, but the company managed a difficult circumstance professionally and were lucky to have a cast that could roll with this punch.

The study attendants were a curious bunch of control freaks, with Jesse Barfield and Kelly Kapp delivering particularly funny and well-drawn eccentrics, and with Ms. Kapp’s subtly robotic movements around the stage a real lesson in physical comedy. Director Gil Reyes, stepping in for Ms. Mays, was also a sharp and disturbing comic presence. Their costumes (by Cynthia Coomes) were interesting in that the white lab coats were replaced by clear plastic gear that suggested fetishism and the necessity of protection against an onslaught of bodily fluids – an appropriate yet menacing touch.

The other design work was mostly spare and carefully selected, with a fascinating sound design by Scott Anthony that made good use of animal noises and lights by Angela Bell. I never saw the original production, also directed by Gil Reyes, but this version is staged with great economy; every element has a purpose and the action is pointed and focused.

Mr. Walker seems to be exploring the tension between traditional social custom and a permissive popular culture and how it shapes our sexual identity. The details of his scenario, in its increasingly foreboding totalitarianism, lean towards science fiction in its larger cultural perspective; and the final scenes are a heady, exhilarating journey of self-examination of American sexual identity that lift the material above sexual hijinks. You come to Great American Sex Play expecting naughty fun – frank dialogue, simulated sex acts, and full frontal nudity all tied together through humor – and you leave with your awareness raised and your intellect stimulated in unexpected ways.

Great American Sex Play

May 16, 17, 18, 20, 23, 24 and 25 at 8 p.m.
May 26 at 2 p.m.

$16; $11 on Industry Night (May 20). 502-584-7777. Or, save box-office fees by using The Kentucky Center's drive-through ticket service.

Louisville Repertory Company

The MeX Theatre, The Kentucky Center

501 West Main Street

Louisville, KY 40202

502-584-7777

www.lourep.org

“Damaged Goods”: Louisville Improv Team Cracks Up Audiences at the Chicago Improv Festival

Parker Bowles, Stefan Gearhart and Rocky Williams of
Damaged Goods. Photo – Damaged Goods.

By Carmen Marti

Entire contents copyright © 2013 Carmen Marti. All rights reserved.

On a Friday afternoon in early April, the members of Louisville’s improvisational comedy ensemble Damaged Goods sat in the rooftop bar of the Lincoln Hotel, quintessential views of Chicago and Lake Michigan glistening outside the windows. They discussed details of the night before; they described dreams for the future. They had made their Chicago debut as a featured act in the 16th annual Chicago Improv Festival, and they were literally and figuratively high in the sky.

“I was high on life after the show,” said team member Stefan Gearhart. “This is the most important thing I’ve ever done.”

“CIF gave us reassurance after the end of last night,” added teammate Rocky Williams.

“Bottom-line is, we’re at the Chicago Improv Festival – the biggest, longest-running, most prestigious comedy festival in the world,” concluded Parker Bowles, the third of the three-member team. “The sky’s the limit.”

Jonathan Pitts.

According to a blog post of CIF executive director and co-founder Jonathan Pitts, CIF16 drew 154 acts from 10 countries performing in 94 shows on 20 stages over 7 days. “That’s over 765 improv-artists from around the world improvising here in Chicago, aka the birthplace and Mecca of modern improvisation.” 

There’s no doubt Chicago is the heart and home of improv comedy. The form took hold in the city’s Hyde Park neighborhood, where in the 1950s the Compass Players experimented with improvisation and helped lay the foundation for sketch comedy. From there Second City was formed, and from there Saturday Night Live. On their heels, the Chicago Improv Festival was created by Pitts and co-founded with actress Frances Callier in 1998.

Gearhart knows all that. He’s studied and practiced improv for 13 years, working with teams such as Happy Gas as a student at Western Kentucky University, and founding the Nannie Tharp Experience – which became NTX Comedy – in Louisville. That’s when he met future Damaged Goods teammate Parker Bowles and encouraged him to audition for NTX. In 2009 as members of that team, they were invited to participate in the CIF Apprentice Teams program, where young teams take part in festival workshops and perform. “The apprenticeship program is why we’re on the main stage now,” Gearhart said.

NTX Comedy went on to a foray in Los Angeles before eventually disbanding, opening the door in 2010 for Gearhart and Bowles to co-found Damaged Goods with four other players. Eventually they recruited long-time friend and funny man Rocky Williams to join them. Over time, several people left the group and then there were three.

“Three is good,” Gearhart said. “We have no issues. We’ve totally taken the improv rule ‘Yes, and’ and put it in our business structure.” Though all three have other full-time jobs, they view Damaged Goods as a business and they are intent on building their brand. “Like” the Damaged Goods Facebook page to see their new logo; follow their show times at the Bards Town; and view photos and videos of their work, including the run at CIF. They founded the Dam Good Nation to establish their community and the Dam Good Network on YouTube to showcase new sketches. (Williams is a videographer and director.) They rehearse three times a week and organize workshops for themselves as part of their focus on professional development.

“We feel very proud of what we do,” Gearhart said. “It’s different from what a lot of people do. We can teach it. We can teach classes and build the Damaged Goods brand of improv.” That means high-energy, distinctive characters, quick response and a powerful telepathic connection.

“In our case,” said Bowles, “it’s the friendship that makes the improv work. We trust each other – I trust those guys 100 percent. If I screw up, they’ll make me look good. No stars. We do all we can to make each other look as good as we can be.”

They practice short form theatrical improv with a focus on full scenes and a beginning, middle and end. Short form is generally based on games, with rules the improvisers follow as they respond to suggestions from the audience. ““We don’t go for the quick hit or laugh,” said Bowles. “We build scenes from the rules of the particular game. The only thing set when we take the stage is what games we’ll play and who’s playing.

“It’s scary as crap,” he continued. “But it’s that fear that propels you to do it.”

The fear factor was strong in Chicago with the festival enjoying a record-breaking year. Audiences were huge with venue after venue sold out over the seven-day period. Damaged Goods was selected as a featured act and shared a line-up with Jon Barinholtz and Rob Belushi (yes, of the Belushi family). Other big names included 30 Rock’s John Lutz, Scott Adsit and Kay Cannon.

But Damaged Goods was ready. Hot off being voted among Louisville’s best acts in the 2011 LEO Awards, Gearhart said the team hit its stride in 2012 with a retreat in Gatlinburg, a Midwest comedy-focused road trip for Bowles and Williams, and a six-week intensive workshop Gearhart led for the group. “Stefan does all the teaching,” said Bowles. “He’s our education director. He leads our rehearsals. We used to just play the games, but Stefan said let’s do a workshop. Let’s get serious. It was tough, but it changed everything.”

According to Gearhart, “One of the reasons we did the workshop was because we really wanted to come to Chicago. We wanted to make the best [submission] tape we could.”

CIF co-founder Jonathan Pitts said the presence of teams such as Damaged Goods at the Chicago Improv Festival is fundamental to the success of the event. “If we just had Chicago teams,” he said, “the festival wouldn’t be any different than any average week in Chicago. Our weekly offerings here are somebody else’s killer festival.”

CIF has always been broader than Chicago, according to Pitts, the mastermind behind Chicago Improv Productions, which includes CIF, College Improv Tournament and Chicago Improv League. “To me the improv community is everybody who’s involved in the form,” he said. “There’s a Chicago community, but there’s also a larger community and connecting with people across the country and in other countries is being part of that larger community.”

Plus, he said, “There are really wonderful regional improv teams across the country. Ten years ago, the regional teams coming to CIF came from a hit-and-miss scene. Maybe a place would have one good team and a bunch of mediocre ones. But now as regional teams have gotten exposure through opportunities like CIF, the scene has grown really well regionally. Now it’s not that often a crapshoot in terms of how good a group will be in a smaller city, because the groups that are good in the smaller cities are really good.”

Pitts’s advice to emerging acts is, “Keep playing; play as much as you can. Find your own voice. Become who you are. Go to other festivals, see what everyone else is doing, learn from them, pick up what you can. But ultimately, don’t just be another team – find your own voice. Because that’s what separates anybody from everybody else.”

He recommends that regional teams play on their area’s unique qualities. “What’s different about living in Louisville?” Pitts asked. “How does that affect how you play? Once you find your unique regional voice, that voice has a stronger chance of resonating with the audience. If you’re generic, it’s harder to generate any enthusiasm.”

It’s not hard for Pitts to generate enthusiasm. “Tell those Louisville guys that I’m really thankful they came out here and were part of CIF16,” he said. “You are good. Keep going. You might be called Damaged Goods, but you’re not.”

The team is ready to take his advice. Williams remembers that when they were coming to Chicago, there was “all this hype,” he said. “But now I’m kind of feeling like I know I’m on the right track. CIF has been valuable. It’s told us, ‘Keep dreaming.’”

Damaged Goods presents: The Rule of Three

Brace yourselves for another epic evening of Dam Good Improv as Damaged Goods celebrates Three Years of IMPROV COMEDY!

May 25 @ 7:30 p.m.

The Bard’s Town

1801 Bardstown Road

Louisville, KY 40205

502-749-5275

Only $10 cash at the door

https://twitter.com/damgoodimprov

“Perfect” Iconic Musical Gets Revamped

 

The cast of the national tour of West Side Story. © Broadway.com

West Side Story

Book by Arthur Laurents

Music by Leonard Bernstein

Lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Directed by David Saint

Review by Kathi E.B. Ellis

Entire contents are copyright © 2013 Kathi E.B. Ellis. All rights reserved.

West Side Story is about as iconic an American musical as one can get. The current national tour opened at The Kentucky Center on Tuesday, bringing a “based on” the 2009 revival version to Louisville audiences.

The 2009 Broadway revival, which I saw, generated much interest with original producer Arthur Laurents’ declared intent to integrate more Spanish language into the script (undertaken by In the Heights’ creator Lin-Manuel Miranda), which he also directed this time around. Since then, many of the lyrics have reverted to English; e.g., “Un Hombre Asi” is now, again, “A Boy Like That.” Nonetheless, a sprinkling of Spanish dialogue in this iteration of the revival serves its purpose to emphasize the cultural difference between the young men and women of the Jets and the Sharks.

I should come clean and make clear that I consider West Side Story an almost-perfect musical. There is an overwhelming sense from the first iconic notes of the prologue to the final silence that everything that happens is absolutely inevitable. The original creators (Laurents, Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein and newcomer Stephen Sondheim) seamlessly blended all musical theater elements together to drive the essence of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet into a compelling production – one that has survived more than a half century of productions, at all levels of theatre, throughout this country and across the world. I’ve seen both the stage and movie versions many times and have worked on productions. It’s a musical I love.

So I stand firmly ambivalent about this version, and what, for me, works and does not work.

In principle, the integration of more Spanish dialogue and lyrics is a great idea – indeed almost too self evident for it to have taken fifty years to incorporate. However, the application of the concept is inconsistent. The addition of high school dance chaperone Glad Hand (Matthew Krob) blundering through some hilariously incorrect (and politically incorrect) translations of his dance instructions is spot-on. The Jets, including Tony (Addison Reid Coe), now have more freedom to speak the language badly because the audience hears the Sharks speak it authentically. “I Feel Pretty” veers between English and Spanish – possibly because the lyrics are repeated – so there’s little fear a predominantly English-speaking audience will miss much. Yet the passionate “A Boy Like That”/“I Have a Love” (Anita, Michelle Alves and Maria, understudy Carolina Sanchez) have reverted to English, an illogical decision in a putatively bi-lingual production, because at an extreme of emotion we typically revert to our earliest way of speaking – in this case Spanish. And yet, Chino (Juan Torres-Falcon) bringing the news of Bernardo’s death to Maria has a whole scene – in which a major plot point is delivered – in Spanish. And Rosalia, who yearns for Puerto Rico, is left to yearn in English. 

James Youmans’ set simply and effectively captures both the immenseness of New York buildings and the crampedness of the mid-twentieth century Upper West Side. Continuing with the bridges link in this season’s PNC Broadway in Louisville series (Flashdance, Memphis), New York’s characteristic bridges and overpasses hover and loom over the action. The Act One finale overpass is less impressive than in the Broadway production but, together with the chain link fence curtain, creates an environment of danger and tension for “The Rumble.” Howell Binkley’s evocative lighting supports the emotional content of the production, while David C. Woolard’s costumes recreate the 1950s’ styles in a vibrantly contemporary palette.

There is much energy in this production, directed by David Saint. The Jets and the Sharks hit their marks with precision; but the passion seems technical, down to the obvious make-up bruises they sport throughout. These are rougher crews than in the Broadway version (New York reviews found the gangs a trifle too nice). But there’s little vulnerability under that street toughness to generate sufficient empathy in the audience to carry the tragedy. Indeed, on opening night there were titters from multiple places in the Whitney auditorium when Chino shot Tony. This is not a great response to a moment that should have some of the most weighted emotion – on stage and off.

Another moment that does not deliver for me is the frantic end of this Act One. The rumble itself continues to compel. Robbins’ original staging (reproduced by Joel McKneely) and Bernstein’s music set the scene for the inevitable violence and death. In the original script, after Tony has killed Bernardo, it is over Riff’s body that he mourns: his best friend, his second in command and the one to whom he pledged “from womb to tomb.” In this version, Riff is left comfortless while Tony dithers over Bernardo’s body.

The underwritten role of Tony is a challenging one. Mr. Coe handles both the romantic and erstwhile-gangleader aspects of it with effectiveness. His “Something’s Coming” is one of the most active interpretations I’ve seen of this song. On Tuesday there were a couple of strained notes in his upper register, which marred both this and “Maria.” Mr. Acosta and Mr. Lencicki bring appropriate gusto in their respective roles. Their dance duets (with Anita and Graziella) in the gym dance were powerfully energetic and precise.

For me, the outstanding performer is Ms. Alves as Anita, admittedly the most dynamically-written character in the script. Whether she was with Bernardo or merely imagining being with him, she exuded sensuality. “America” – as with the original stage version all-female, unlike the more well-known movie version with Shark guys as well as girls – was an energetic parody and paean to this country. An unfortunate staging choice during “Quintet” meant that, although she is upstage center, the lighting choices illumine the other four entities more effectively than her. Ms. Sanchez’s Maria was charming. The Rider University student has a lovely voice that serves her character and the relationship with Tony well. In the Bridal Shop, at the end of “One Hand, One Heart,” there was an unexpected moment of almost-uncertainty that stilled the audience as Maria and Tony took in the enormity of the vows they’d just enacted. One could have wished that Mr. Saint had found more such moments to engage the audience’s emotions.

My biggest obstacle to liking this version is dramaturgical. I understand neither now, nor when I saw it four years ago, why the Act Two dream sequence is truncated into only the “happy” half. The absence of the “nightmare” leaves Act Two without the needed gravitas to lead into “A Boy Like That,” which leads to Maria’s lie to Lieutenant Schrank (Konrad Case) and the rape of Anita, and thus Anita’s lie to the Jets, and finally Tony’s decision to go back out into the streets, and Chino’s action. This absence means that the hardworking cast has to work harder to make the second half of the production work (and both Riff, Theo Lencicki and Bernardo, Andres Acosta, get to spend all of Act Two in the green room…).

A nod must be given to the unlisted (neither in the program nor on the Troika website) understudy Melanie Wildman who played Anybodys on opening night.

Opening night jitters may have been responsible for an unfortunately premature light cue in Act Two that took the audience out of a key scene and meant that the effect had been previewed in a way that undercut its impact in the following scene.

The ultimate testament to West Side Story is that it continues to survive, that the universal aspects of the story transcend a particular time and place, and that moments of power and passion transcend individual production choices. For those of us who are passionate about this story, we’ll continue to go see productions and we’ll continue to debate the relative merits of each production we see – with passion.

West Side Story

May 14-19, 2013

PNC Broadway in Louisville

The Kentucky Center

501 West Main Street

Louisville, KY, 40202

502-589-7777

http://louisville.broadway.com/