Oscar E Moore

All ages, all shapes and sizes – twinkies, daddies, drag queens, a financier (more on him later), lovers, those looking for lovers, those just looking for a good time – some straight, some of the opposite sex – each and every one welcomed to this wonderful extended family, attended the sold out performance of the New York Gay Men’s Chorus Concert, the BIG GAY SING – “a sing along extravaganza”, Friday evening at NYU’s Skirball Center for the Performing Arts.  And what an extravaganza it was.  Everyone had a blast.  This was one hell of an entertaining concert which is not to be missed next time ‘round.

The chorus is 200 members strong.  The sound is spectacular.  The choice of songs, a musical comedy queen’s nirvana – “Maybe This Time” featuring Sonelius Kendrick-Smith, “Don’t Rain On My Parade” with Angelo Cilia and “Time Heals Everything” soloist Michael Morisi.  The special arrangements proved powerful and moving.

Musical director, Dr. Charles Beale runs a tight ship.  The singers have every song down pat.  And that goes for their hand and head coordinated movements as well.  The opening of Act II- “Carmina Burana: O Fortuna was particularly stirring.

Comedian and celebrity interviewer Scott Nevins hosted.  He is extremely funny.  He kept the show light and moving right along with his stories of Liza Minnelli, his growing up in Flushing and his love of all things well, gay.  Holly Faris as Joan Rivers did red carpet duty – dishing and greeting various luminaries upon entering.  Tom McGillis did a masterful job as Sign Language Interpreter.

Guest artist was the original Annie, Andrea McCardle, who came on wearing a pair of show stopping shoes that ice skater from the past, Sonja Henie “Queen of the Ice” would have lusted after.  Andrea wowed the audience with “Some People” from Gypsy and later on with her signature number, “Tomorrow”.

There were mini production numbers.  Fabulous costumes.  Some well placed choreography.  A terrific band.  An over the top tribute to Madonna and Judy, Patron Saint of Dorothy’s friends worldwide.  It doesn’t get much better than having Eugene Lovendusky, sitting on the apron of the stage ala Garland, singing “Over the Rainbow” with the original film clip projected on the screen behind the band and the full chorus joining in.  An MGM Wow! Moment.

For some numbers the lyrics were clearly projected for the “sing along songs” so that we could all vent our inner Judy, Barbra, Beyonce and Tammy Wynette.

Now, the financier.  He was chosen during Act I with the blessing of his wife to appear in Act II, in a segment featuring a song from Grease with a woman also chosen at random. When they arrived dressed as Sandy and Danny it was a role reversal extraordinaire.  He was in a pink poodle skirt and loving every minute of it.  His wife was hysterical as was the entire crowd.  All in good fun, it was the comedy hit of the evening.

One of the main issues that the chorus would like to address is “fighting homophobia through song”.  This was done brilliantly by bringing up was the ban on same sex marriage in California – the Vote No on Proposition 8 bill – with a wonderful rendition of “Old Fashioned Wedding” sung by Dan Baillie and Jason B. Schmidt and then segueing into “I’m Not Getting Married” and then announcing the engagement of two chorus members.

Everything about the evening was a class act.  Funny and entertaining more than you can imagine.  Right down to the curtain call, “I’m Coming Out”.  I hope that the next concert will have a longer run.  But for that, they’ll need our support.

For more information www.biggaysing.com  Big Apple Performing Arts www.bapany.org   212 344 1777

Tags:   Andrea McCardle · Big Apple Performing Arts · New York Gay Men's Chorus · Scott Nevins1 Comment

Karen Olivo, George Akram and company

No matter what is said about ninety one year old Arthur Laurents, who has just directed his bi-lingual, revitalized revival of the classic musical West Side Story holding forth at the Palace Theater – and plenty of people have some pretty vile things to say – he must be admired for his courage, tenacity, talent and getting the job done.

Whether or not you agree with all his changes of the revered show for which he wrote the book which originally opened in 1957 does not matter.  He has brought an exciting and enjoyable West Side Story to vivid life for a new generation of theatergoers.  Does that not count for anything?

The gorgeous and phenomenal music of Leonard Bernstein, being played full out by an orchestra in the pit and in the boxes on either side of the stage.  The lyrics of a young Stephen Sondheim – with new Spanish translations by Lin-Manuel Miranda of “In The Heights” fame (just look how many Latinos he’s brought into the theatrical fold).  The ground breaking choreography of Jerome Robbins (another genius that many people were not fond of, to put it mildly) which has been keenly reproduced by Joey McKneely.  All is on stage to be seen and admired anew by the sold out audiences that should keep the Palace packed for quite a while.

The Jets and the infringing-on-their-territory Sharks are explosive in song and dance.  A great athletic cast of excellent dancer/singers has been assembled.  They are exceptional, especially in “Dance at the Gym”.  I defy anyone to find fault with any one of them.  Riff (Cody Green) turns in an impressive and electrifying performance as the best friend of Tony (Matt Cavenaugh) who falls madly and tragically in love with Maria.  One of my only regrets is that Matt’s voice, although as beautiful as his body (we know immediately why Maria is hot for him) is not as strong and soaring as I had hoped.

Maria, a beautiful, young, passionate and tough Josefina Scaglione is charming, especially in her newly translated “I Feel Pretty” (Siento Hermosa).  The speaking of Spanish gives substance to all the Latino characters and works most of the time.  It’s only when they go back and forth between languages for some phrases that need to be said in English that it’s a bit awkward.  In any event many new theatergoers will find this truly exciting.

As Anita, Karen Olivo all but steals the show.  She is someone who you cannot take your eyes off of – whether she is singing or swishing her skirts or throwing back her massive head of hair.  She takes the stage with a manic energy and delivers a Tony worthy performance.  Her boyfriend Bernardo (George Akram) is a hot-blooded stallion.

I was equally impressed with Greg Vinkler as Doc, Steve Bassett as the prejudiced Lt. Schrank and Michael Mastro as Glad Hand – all non-singing non-dancing roles.  Tro Shaw is a terrific Anybodys and Nicholas Barasch as Kiddo gets to sing a moving “Somewhere”.

There is nothing more exciting on Broadway right now than hearing the bi-lingual Quintet “Tonight” and then seeing the massive set for the rumble appear on stage for the incredible finale to Act I.  It’s a great evening of theatrical history being reinvented for a new and appreciative audience.  Highly recommended.

Tags:   Arthur Laurents · Josefina Scaglione · Karen OlivoComments Off on Mambo Mia! West Side Story Revival sizzles

In the world premiere of Anne Steele’s cabaret act – Strings Attached – we can clearly hear why she was named winner in the first “MetroStar Talent Challenge” – prevailing over an initial pool of 70 contestants in the 7-week jury and audience-voted elimination-round competition, produced and hosted by the Metropolitan Room. 

This is the best show I’ve ever seen at the Metropolitan Room.  No one comes close to the incredible talent Anne Steele displays.  She is an original.  With an original act.  With a voice that is pure and powerful and poignant.  She is truly special and someone that has a fabulous future ahead of her.  If this is the beginning, watch out world, who knows what Anne Steele is going to accomplish.  She’s got a great look and is secure enough with herself and who she is that you just go along with her whatever she sings.

There are some evenings when I just do not feel like seeing someone new, singing a collection of songs that I am not that familiar with.  But let me tell you – I was totally floored by Anne Steele.  She is unique.  Mixing songs by Queen, Bob Dylan, Duffy, Cat Stevens, Pink and Charlie Chaplin side by side with Sondheim takes a whole lot of courage, creativity and talent to pull off. 

On top of which she is accompanied by her musical director and arranger Kenny Davidsen on piano, a back up vocalist Liz Lark Brown and a string quartet: Sean Harkness, guitar, Kathryn Andersen, violin, Matt Zalkind, cello; Taylor Hollyer, bass – hence the title of her show – Strings Attached.  It is an incredible mix that makes for an absolutely new and distinctive cabaret sound.

Anne Steele has perfect phrasing, a naturalness, an exuberance and that all important “like-ability” factor.  She sticks to singing – what she does best.  Although she does talk a bit between songs, it is kept short.  She is quick witted with an understated charisma and has chosen a collection of beautiful songs to showcase her range as a singer and abilities as an actress.

Sultry, cool and confident she makes you feel all the love in her songs.   From her opening “Don’t Stop Me Now” (no one could or should) to her melancholy version of “Tennessee Waltz” to “Indiana” where she wonders aloud what it would be like to be famous (she’ll know soon enough) to a fabulous “I Want You Back” to the Beatle’s “Here, There and Everywhere” to a very toxic “Toxic” to Sondheim’s “Move On” each and every number has been meticulously arranged to offer up a program that amuses and astonishes and bewitches.

Anne Steele is someone to keep on your radar.

Tags:   Anne Steele · Kenny DavidsenNo Comments.

Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons

Step back and take another look.  What you see might be very different.  What you hear might be very different also.  Impressionism, a new play by Michael Jacobs, has the sharks out on Broadway.  Ready for the kill.  Rumors are rife of it being torturous to sit through.  Audiences were fleeing after the first act in previews.  Confused.  The creative team, headed by director Jack O’Brien, has been repairing and revising.  Two acts have been condensed to one.  An impossible makeover, the sharks would say.  They would be wrong.

Do not be intimidated by the title.  Impressionism is not totally about art, although the visuals are absolutely beautiful to look at – it is an unabashed love story told in a somewhat abstract manner.  From the present to the past we follow the story of art gallery owner, Katharine Keenan (Joan Allen) who finds it difficult to part with any of her works and her assistant – photographer Thomas Buckle (Jeremy Irons) who is trying to make some sales.  She is a very complicated woman and we discover how much so and why in flashbacks with her parents at age six and while posing for the artist, Palmer Wilson at age thirty.

We also go back in time with Thomas, the photographer.  To Africa.  Where he meets the sweet potato man (Andre de Shields) and photographs a little boy in a tree that is for sale in the gallery.  Back and forth we go.  Seamlessly.  The set design by Scott Pask, projections by Elaine J. McCarthy, lighting by Natasha Katz and original music by Bob James all keep the action flowing and the pictures on exhibit between scenes a marvel to behold.  Catherine Zuber has done an artful job with her chic and stylish costumes.  So, Impressionism is a feast for the eyes.

Now, the play.   It is extremely funny and immensely touching and moving as it reaches the end of its ninety minutes running time.  Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons are simply terrific.  She, all efficiency and he of superior intelligence and wry humor.   Their developing relationship is a pleasure to watch.  These two have been through a lot.  And this play shows that even at a certain age there is hope where hope had been dashed before or thought to be lost forever.  Hope that you can find someone, somewhere that you can share your time with and be happy just sitting together on a bench in the park.  You just have to step back and look at life from a different perspective. Sentimental some will say.  But it’s lovely.

Marsha Mason portraying an ultra rich grandmother to be in search of purchasing a Cassatt comes on stage looking fabulous and acting like gangbusters with some of the funniest lines in the show.  Not to be outdone, however, by Andre de Shields in dual roles.  He is a wonderful as the sweet potato man and glorious as the muffin man.  His description of the “bench painting” is hilarious and heartfelt.  Michael Weiss as a would be suitor who has an item on consignment with Katherine is just right.  As young Katharine, Hadley Delany has not much to do, due to cuts I’m sure – but is fine.  The always terrific Aaron Lazar has also met the same fate, but delivers as Ben Joplin, a just about to be married guy with his girl friend (Margarita Levieva) who wants to buy the “bench painting”.  He nails every laugh and then some.

Jack O’Brien and company have succeeded in making Impressionism the extreme makeover hit of the season. 

Limited Engagement.  Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre 236 West 45 Street

www.ImpressionismThePlay.com

Tags:   Aaron Lazar · Jack O'Brien · Jeremy Irons · Joan Allen · Marsha Mason · Michael JacobsNo Comments.

As I left the preview performance of Gaugleprixtown, a three character, 60 minute exercise of over the top, makes little or no sense theatrical writing in the spirit of an avant garde play inspired by the kidnapping and murder of a 4year-old British chap who was targeted for random death by two ten year-old boys which has just opened at the Kirk Theatre at Theatre Row for a limited run of 21 performances through April 4^th, I commented to no one in particular “Well, that’s a bizarre one!”  

The author, Andrew Muir, in his program notes explains that he wanted to explore what an imaginary meeting of these two murderers would be like, years after they were released from jail and into society once again – to try to understand the why behind the horrendous killing.  That he was interested in what makes the minds of the child killers tick.  That would have made a great play.

Instead, he has the two “invincible” murderers – Adrian (Tony Roach) and Richard (Kurt Uy) sitting on a row boat without motor or visible oars out on a lake in Western Massachusetts that is used for funerals surrounded by some lovely swamp grass and hanging trees that make it appear more like a Louisiana bayou.  Set design by Martin Andrew.  We then hesitatingly begin.  Short scenes with some odd lighting effects and even odder music set the tone.  Explaining little.  Without the program notes you would not know that these two had killed someone and were meeting for the first time in years.

The audience, becoming restless, starts a nervous giggle.  Are we to laugh?  “What’s going on?” – a character asks as we are asking ourselves the same question.  They talk of fishing and baiting and catching the next one.  Looking for answers.  “We’re good at this.”  It’s a fun game for them.  They never actually speak about the reality of what happened.  There is anger still.  Adrian of the angelic face and Richard the wine salesman, now married with a daughter in his ill fitting too tight suit catch a small red shoe, a backpack and then the biggest and best catch of the day – Lucy (Devon Berkshire).  She emerges from the lake and onto their boat dressed for her wedding.  It’s like an Ingmar Bergman nightmare.

It is only when Lucy arrives that we begin to see the whole picture.  When told they are sorry for what has occurred she blasts out at them and painstakingly recounts and relives her murder as these two seemingly normal guys look on – detached.  Normal they’re not.  Neither is the play.  Like the notes retrieved from her back pack all is smudged.  Nothing is clear.  This is echoed in the acting.  How can they know their intentions if their intentions are so smudged by the author and not enlightened by the director, David F. Chapman?

Gaugleprixtown is a British import, discovered by Bradford Louryk while he was in Edinburgh appearing in Christine Jorgensen Reveals – in which he gives an incredible and indelible performance.  Most recently at Theatre Row.  Perhaps British accents would have given Gaugleprixtown the gravitas that is needed to make it work.  Or perhaps a more compelling script.  Tickets $18.00  www.stu42.com

Tags:   Andrew Muir · Bradford LourykNo Comments.

“All Jews are dogs!” barks the Nazi Major into the ear of the old Jew seated on the bench who is awaiting interrogation and having his identification papers checked along with nine other men who have been picked up randomly on the streets of Vichy, a “safe zone” 1942 – during the German occupation of France.  It grabs your attention.  Or is it that attention must be paid?  For there are still too many who hate “the other”- the person who is not them.

In this searing indictment of the Nazi regime and subsequent Holocaust, written in 1964 by Arthur Miller and not seen in New York for nearly thirty years, The Actor’s Company Theatre/TACT has assembled a first rate ensemble cast that has you sitting on the edge of your seat awaiting, along with them, who will be released and who will be sent off to the furnaces in Poland to be exterminated and not, as they are being told, to work.  It’s a brutal reminder of what happened and a warning for it to never happen again.

On the long bench in the “detention center” sit a cross section of the men living in Vichy:  a painter, an electrician, an actor, businessman, aristocrat, gypsy, waiter, psychiatrist, a boy of fifteen and an old Jew.   Do they have forged papers?  Are they Jewish or Gentile?  Will one or more escape?  Were all their noses measured?  Will they have to expose their private parts to see who is circumcised?

Miller has them all waiting and worrying, discussing with each other what has brought them all to this point in their lives and what repercussions will follow.  It is a frightening experience.  None more than when the young boy wants to have the Prince take his mother’s wedding ring back to her and he is all but dragged into the interrogation room where we can see through an opaque glass in shadow and hear the laughter of the Nazi’s as they have their fun with their detainees.

A chilling opening by director Scott Alan Evans with ominous, eerie music by Joseph Trapanese sets the mood precisely.  The set by Scott Bradley, costumes by David Toser and lighting by Mary Louise Geiger couldn’t be more perfect.   The ensemble cast is exceptional.  You won’t forget a single one of them:  TACT company members – Jamie Bennett, Richard Ferrone, Todd Gearhart, Jack Koenig, Ron McClary, James Prendergast and Gregory Salata.  Guest artists:  Mark Alhadeff, Christopher Burns, Jeffrey Hawkins, Leif Huckman, Russell Kahn, Michael Oberholtzer and Dan Stowell.

You can literally feel the danger. 

Tickets are $26.25 – $56.25 www.ticketcentral.com The Beckett Theatre/Theatre Row Through April 11, 2009  www.tactnyc.org

Tags:   The Actors Company TheatreNo Comments.

I remember going to the circus with my parents when I was about ten years old and thinking how wonderful it would be to run away and join a circus and just have fun with all the animals and the clowns.  But I didn’t like clowns.  I thought they did stupid things and they weren’t funny.  Except for Emmett Kelly – a sad sack tramp who swept up his spotlight into smaller and smaller circles trying to make it disappear. 

In his one man, theatrical tribute to his clown heritage, Humor Abuse – directed and co-created by Erica Schmidt, Lorenzo Pisoni didn’t have to run away to join a circus, he was born into one and in fact tried to run away from the circus early on but was persuaded to return by his father.

On a set that resembles a European one ring circus, with some colored lights hanging above and with an old steamer trunk which enables Lorenzo to find props and pieces of costumes to recreate some of his father’s routines while reminiscing about the rather cold and uncommunicative man, that he obviously loves but has issues with, we learn about Lorenzo’s early life in the Pickle Family Circus.

Lorenzo does not look like your typical clown.  He is tall and handsome.  Well built.  He claims to be not funny.  He is.  He claims to sweat a lot.  He does.  With the use of vintage slide projections we see little Lorenzo at two making his debut during intermission.  The photos are terrific visuals that accompany Lorenzo’s poignant recollections of his dad, his mom, eating pancakes, learning to act like a dummy, learning to do a double take, juggling, tap dancing in a gorilla suit, doing back flips, dealing with balloons and the infamous Pickle Hat – made of red felt and garden hose by his mother that he had to learn to balance on the tip of his fake red nose.  Until he could.  He can. 

It’s an odd yet interesting life.  One that he wasn’t entirely happy or unhappy with.  Lorenzo does justice to his self-centered father’s memory and performs the routines with finesse and bravado.  In 75 minutes.

We don’t learn much about his mother or sister.  His parents separated when he was only ten. Lorenzo then went out on the road alone where he missed his on stage father terribly.  The closeness they had when he was in the trunk that his father carried on stage, waiting for his cue to emerge and be his partner.  A closeness that evaded him in real life.

Despite the amusing attempt at climbing a ladder with huge flippers on, cleverly escaping sandbags that are dropped from above within killing distance and the balloon that somehow always gets away, Lorenzo is right in saying that he is not funny.  The routines are funny but his is a very serious look at what made a certain clown tick.  His father.

It’s an incredible tribute that his son is performing for him at Manhattan Theatre Club – New York City Center Stage II.  www.mtc-nyc.org

Tags:   Erica Schmidt · Lorenzo PisoniNo Comments.

Hit alert!  Hit alert!  When was the last time you went to see a new musical on or off- Broadway and came out humming a tune?  Well, at least part of a tune.  Rooms, a new rock or rather “rocky” romance of a musical by Paul Scott Goodman (music, lyrics and book) and Miriam Gordon (book) will have NYC humming and buzzing and cheering till the heather on the hills of Scotland is no longer.

Husband and wife collaborators have written this terrific show about collaborators Monica P. Miller  a “Scottish Jewish Princess” lyricist (one of the funniest songs from the show) who is hell bent on becoming a famous and rich rock star with WIT (whatever it takes) and she means it! – and Ian Wallace a subdued Catholic songwriter who loves his guitar purchased at Woolworth’s more than anything else including celebrity and is hell bent on self destruction with whiskey.  They say opposites attract and in this case it’s kismet.  Doug Kreeger as Ian and Leslie Kritzer as Monica are perfection as the oddest of odd couples with charisma by the bucketful and voices to match.

There seems to be no stopping her- singing “Bring the Future Faster” and “All I Want Is Everything” says it all.  She’s a tornado.  Someone who “could sell a condom to the Pope.”  From the moment she hands Ian the lyric that she needs a new composer to write the music for to be performed at a Bat Mitzvah that week he reluctantly is seduced into their whirlwind professional journey to the top of the charts from Scotland to London to New York (1977-80).  Then it gets personal.  The ups and downs of their tumultuous relationship are told in wonderful song.  The lyrics of which are especially well crafted, character driven, funny, compassionate and moving.   You won’t hear better, anywhere.  The always tuneful music is performed by the onstage band that never overpowers but enhances the two rock birds.

The amazing double tour de force performances have been beautifully directed by Scott Schwartz.  He should be much in demand.  His idea to use a single doubled faced white door, which is on wheels, and moved about the stage to represent the various rooms and locations almost becoming a third character is put to brilliant use and is a technical theatrical treat.

Everything on the stark set is exposed.  The band.  Speakers.  Brick walls.   Lighting equipment.  And the souls of Ian and Monica.  You can’t help but care for them.  Falling in love with them as they fall for each other and routing for a happy ending.  Discovering what makes them tick.  How they write a song together.  “Clean” which condenses Ian’s two years of being off the sauce is simply a great piece of writing.

Rooms is an ensemble piece.  Of course, there are the two marvelous actors and director and writers at work.  But the choreography by Matt Williams, the expert and marvelous lighting by Herrick Goldman, scenic design by Adam Koch, quick change costumes by Alejo Vietti and well tempered sound by Jon Weston complete the ensemble.  Take away one factor and it just wouldn’t be the same. 

This is a musical for all ages.  An unconventional love story that bridges the traditional and the new.   Rooms is well structured, well written, has a charm and wit all its own – AND it rocks!  See it, WIT (Whatever it takes)!

www.RoomsARockRomance.com New World Stages 340 W. 50^th Street Tickets $10.00 – $69.50

Tags:   Doug Kreeger · Leslie Kritzer · Scott SchwartzNo Comments.

Having to walk up four flights of stairs (the elevator was “out of service”) did not put me in a very good frame of mind to review the new comedy Schooling Giacomo, written and directed by Richard Edwin Knipe, Jr. which has just opened at the physically disabled, broken down (the men’s bathroom is dirty and the woman’s has no light bulb we were informed) The American Theatre of Actors at 314 West 54 Street – between 8^th and 9^th Avenues.  There is also another production in the building that suffers the same fate.

More faithful fans you wouldn’t find anywhere.  A busload of people from Rockland County came in to support Mr. Knipe at the performance I saw.  Members of the same church, Veronica informed me.  I loved Veronica.  I wish I could say the same for the play.  Although I liked it a lot – it’s pleasant and has some really funny scenes I don’t think it’s quite ready for the big time.  It needs work.  And you’ll just have to be very patient to have all the pieces of the plot come together in this two act production to pay off, so to speak.

We’re talking organized crime here.  The Mob vs. the Irish.  Mother vs. son.  Uncles vs. uncles.  A cross between The Sopranos and Neil Simon taking place in the Bronx circa 1970 and today and sometimes in between.  Going back and forth in the mind of Jake (Hugh Scully) whose daughter Abbey (Alanna Heraghty) is in need of a heart transplant that she doesn’t want to have.  Too risky.  What has Jake learned from Vukey Fanuchi (Kevin Trotta) his three uncles, Dominic (Andrew Lionetti) Charlie (George Petkanus) and Joe (Rick Apicella) and his angry, drunken mom Irene (Robin Peck) and her live in, abusive lover Pete Murphy (Kevin Nagle)? 

As fourteen year old Jake, Giacomo (Jordan Adelson) takes us back to Orchard Beach, his Bronx apartment and his memories of what transpired, having been given advice on church, confession, wakes and attempted murder we share the lessons of life he’s been exposed to.  It is his past that enables him to come to grips with dealing with his present day problems with his daughter’s health.

The production tries too hard in making the past scenes parallel the present.  It is not always successful.  Farce one minute, very serious the next.  Flashbacks.  A young Abbey (Dominique Alvarado) dancing the Nutcracker taking place in Jake’s memory.  A mysterious letter.  The album Abbey Road.  The question of an insurance policy.  The way the mob would take care of things.  With all this baggage, Jake has learned how to survive, picking up a few of his mother’s not so terrific traits in the process.

The acting is good all around, although at times it verges on caricature, you know the “fugetaboutit” syndrome.   But it is at times hilarious. Even though the three uncles argue fiercely over the most trivial of things you feel the bond and love between them.  Kevin Trotta turns in a wonderful performance as mob guide in the past and in the present.  There are a lot of laughs and some heartfelt truths laid bare in Schooling Giacomo.  It’s a pleasant time spent with some interesting characters.  And I do mean characters!  Veronica found it – “entertaining”.

www.schoolinggiacomo.com  Tickets $35.00 through April 26^th.

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Talk about product placement!  As you walk into the newly restored Actors’ Playhouse (you can still hear the heat pipes rattling; the comfortable seats have wooden armrests that are equipped with holes so that you may take in a drink while enjoying the show) you are greeted by three large video screens where jars of Ragu Spaghetti Sauce are projected, seemingly dancing all over the place. The videos are accompanied by the songs of Sinatra, Louis Prima and Rosemary Clooney getting everyone in the “mama mia” mood.

I hope Ragu is somehow helping this production for all the free pre-performance publicity for this ninety minute, one man’s journey through life with his maze of Sicilian relatives aptly titled, Blood Type:  Ragu.  The man being Frank Ingrasciotta.  Writer and performer.  He is tall and charming and very ingratiating.   Very funny.  As with all one man shows if the performer is not up to the task of delivering the many characters brought to life on stage there is little reason to attend.  I am happy to report that Mr. Ingrasciotta has all that is needed to embody his always cooking, long suffering mama and his always “King of the House” construction working papa, his uncle, his neighbors (with hilarious nick names)  and everyone else involved in his interesting Italian-American life.

With a black and white vinyl and chrome dinette chair as his only prop Frankie transforms himself with a variety of Italian accents and gestures – speaking in Italian at times but always translating to great comic effect.  Backing him up are the three amazing video screens that show the various locations of his life both in America and Sicily.  They are extremely inventive and add immeasurably to the story of Frankie’s adventures – the joint effort of Scenic Designer John McDermott and Projection Designer Joshua Higgason.  Director Ted Sod has done a fine job in keeping everything interesting and well paced going from moments of hilarity to moments of introspection and I imagine he had something to do with the clever design scheme.

Starting out as a young boy, we see Frankie learning about his mom and dad – being forced into the position of translator and arbitrator, seeing his mom become more and more independent until she divorces his father, seeing his father hook up with another woman, seeing Frankie hook up with a hooker, attending two wakes, loving Disco, Ricotta, sunflowers, going on a blind date and marrying and finally being able to have feelings that he never was allowed to have.  If this sounds like a lot.  It is.  After a while just when you think it’s ending another episode emerges.  Blood Type: Ragu’s sauce begins to thin.  With some expert editing this could be a wonderful look into the life of Frank Ingrasciotta’s.  As it is, it’s “Molto bene ma troppo lungo.”  (“Very good but too long.”)

www.bloodtyperagu.com

Tags:   Ted SodNo Comments.