The Slipper Room’s a work in progress, in September and beyond…
BY TRAV S.D.
About Last Month…
I caught ten shows in this year’s New York International Fringe Festival. That’s a mere 5% of the festival’s overall catalog — but it was but plenty, believe me. Several of those shows have previously been reviewed in these pages, but I capped off the experience by seeing four circus and vaudeville-themed shows all in a bunch. Here’s how they rated —
“Bagabones: A Contortionist’s Charming Nightmare” was as lively as the grave. While performer/creator Jonathan Nosan is without a doubt a skilled human pretzel, there is a paucity of showmanship and spectacle to his presentation. It had me tying myself in knots waiting for the finish. Rather than stretch his routine out to an hour, he’d be better off compressing it into fifteen minutes. While Mr. Nosan’s act might have been benefited from a zippy line of patter, magician Ben Whiting (creator of the show “American Gypsy”) would probably be better off foregoing the talky histrionics and sticking with the close-up magic he does so well. Unnecessarily complicated, the bulk of the show consists of the story of how the guy who taught him magic, taught HIM magic. It would probably be a better tribute as straight sleight of hand.
“Stripes: The Mystery Circus” was a charming show by Canadian performer Sarah Hayward. While younger viewers will undoubtedly find Ms. Hayward fatally unhip (there should be a restraining order against her playing air guitar), there’s something refreshing about the earnest and simple manner in which she translates her life into a series of metaphorical circus acts. Her songwriting is interesting too.
Best of the four was easily “The Great Galvani” — an all-too-short monologue by a Chicago troupe called The Magpies. The piece, written, directed and designed by Shawn Reddy as part of a longer work, takes the form of a Barnumesque dime museum spiel as delivered by the son of Luigi It ends on a deliciously absurd note, which would easily been worth the price of admission if I had paid any.
Over at Theater for the New City’s inaugural Dream Up Festival, I caught “The New York Monologues” — an admirably conceived if clumsily executed cross section of monologues by fictional New Yorkers around the subject of 9/11. Playwright Mike Poblete (a Dublin expat) has several good ideas for scenes, but lacks the finesse to make his mostly satirical portraits resemble anything like real people. Finer brushstrokes would have made for a richer experience.
In September…
The HOWL! Festival seems to be happening in a big way. Founded in 2003, the East Village multi-arts festival has gone through some periods when it appeared to be hanging by its thumbs — and some when it didn’t even happen at all. This year, there will be three days of performances in the Tompkins Square Park bandshell (Sept. 10-12). The organizers have also announced HOWL! Arts Project 2010 — an entire month of performances at Theatre 80 to benefit HOWL! Help (a new emergency assistance fund for East Village artists). The roster includes performances by East Village fixtures Penny Arcade, Flotilla DeBarge, Tom Murrin (The Alien Comic), Tammy Faye Starlight, Justin Bond, and Our Lady J, among others. For a full schedule, go to www.howlfestival.com.
If you’ve noticed a big heap of wreckage on Orchard Street where you’re accustomed to seeing The Slipper Room, fret not. The much-beloved burlesque emporium is just getting a makeover and expansion (due for completion come spring). In the meantime, The Slipper Room’s many anchor shows are still running, but itinerant. I recommend you catch Mr. Choade’s Upstairs Downstairs at Kenny’s Castaways (every Saturday night). For details, www.slipperroom.com.
If you’re the easily confused type, you’ll want to clip out this next paragraph and keep it in your purse or wallet (that is, if you don’t do that every month already). This month there are two separate shows concerning female murderers, one by the ACCESS THEATER and one by the Axis Company. I DARE you try to keep them straight! On September 8, Access Theater opens “Nance O’Neill” — which treats of the relationship between the titular stage actress and a Fall River lass by the name of Lizzie Borden. To sweeten the pot, the company has cast burlesque perform Sapphire Jones in the title role. Something so wrong has just got to be right! Get more info at www.accesstheater.org.
Axis Company’s “Down There” is about the brutal 1965 beating and starvation death of Syliva Likens at the hand of the worst foster parent in history (including the Neanderthal era). Knowing and loving this company’s work as I do, it’s likely to be a dream-like, psychological portrait instead of a graphic portrayal. At least that’s what I’m telling my squeamish girlfriend. Previews start Sept. 9, and runs officially from Sept. 18 through Oct. 30. Get more info at www.axiscompany.org.
Opening Sept. 9 is something called “Brandywine Distillery Fire” — at the Incubator Arts Project, (at St. Mark’s Church). A successor project to Richard Foreman’s Ontological-Hysteric, Incubator Arts is one of the few venues in the city where you can expect to see genuine experimental theatre on a regular basis. The show in question is a rare excursion by the Brick Theatre’s artistic director Michael Gardner. In cahoots with playwright Matt Freeman, he’s making noise about something called “New Naturalism” (an attempt to “destroy storytelling” and to “tell a story in the way that Jackson Pollock would paint a landscape). The show runs until Sept. 18. For more info: www.incubatorarts.org.
On Sept. 13, Red Bull Theater launches its star-studded Revelation Readings series with “Gammer Gurton’s Needle” (directed by the Ridiculous Theatrical Company’s Everett Quinton). The monthly series, which runs through June, contains a range of lesser-known works from the Elizabethan, Jacobean, Restoration and Romantic periods — and features the likes of F. Murray Abraham, Rene Auberjonois, Roberta Maxwell, Michael Urie and many more. For info: www.redbulltheater.com.
Lastly, please note a correction from last month’s column. The Andy Warhol monologue “Forever Art” at PS122 was in Underground Zero, not the Under the Radar Festival as reported.
See you next month!
