This review has been reposted courtesy of the League of Cincinnati Theatres. For more LCT reviews click here to visit their reviews page.
I have no idea what I saw on stage the Cohen Family Studio Theatre of the College-Conservatory of Music, but I haven’t laughed this hard at a farce in a long time. What a wacky refreshing evening of theatre at CCM Studio Series. If Monty Python and Carol Burnett had a child this would be the offspring. The play is a series of sketches, vignettes, or whatever you want to call it (it’s billed as a cycle of bad plays so take your pick). The fun is that it’s a series of satirical views of theatre — complete with an overzealous director (the real one, not the one portrayed by very talented Bartley Booz and, well, a very famous CCM director in cameo at the curtain call!).
It was very “fringey” and that’s what I loved. While this show feels like acting exercises and improv games made into a piece of theatre, I enjoyed the effort. Often times when I see shows at CCM their offerings are highly polished and technically proficient but lack some emotional energy or edginess. Kudos to director Brant Russell for changing things up!! This is devised theatre, funny and scrappy and showcasing several of the drama students to great effect. It’s hard to single out individuals when you’re seeing an ensemble hard at work. Spencer Lackey was disturbingly charming and mysterious in a Norman Bates sort of way sitting on a bench waiting for a train. It took the audience a while (if not right at his reveal) to realize it was a man as a woman boozing it up during the voice-over monologue. Andrew Iannacci, Colleen Ladrick, Laura McCarthy, Devan Pruitt, Alison Slutter and Arielle de Versterre are all juniors in the program, so you should not miss this fun with them before they graduate. I’m looking forward to more work by sophomore Emily Walton (along with sophomore Lackey), who seem to make the transition from drama to comedy smoothly.
It’s theatrical sin at its finest. The “We’ve got a fog machine” was a brilliant zinger of the rule “just because you can, doesn’t mean you have to” that plagues many theatre productions — professional, community, high school, Las Vegas, even mega-churches. Not to mention the hilarious send-up in sound design and choreography of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”. I loved the breaking of the fourth wall and loved the fun ending.
I’m reminded of a John Cleese bit “If you’re not old enough to cope with bad language then you should not have chat shows.” If you’re not old enough to laugh at some fine theatre you shouldn’t be a theatre-goer at all.
For more information on the production, click here.
Behind the Curtain Cincinnati 