Summer show skewers BP, power, and the powerful
BY JERRY TALLMER
Let’s guess.
In this year’s free Summer Street Theater do Crystal Field & Co. — and a cast of 50, mostly kids — make a monster out of BP?
“Yeah!” exclaimed the artistic (and everything else) dynamo of Theater for the New City over the phone from her hideaway cabin in Upstate New York — where she goes this time of year every year to write the show. “Sure we do.”
At the center of “Gone Fission, or Alternative Power” — her 2010 operetta for the street — is a disillusioned, fired Wall Street broker (Michael David Gordon) who as a temp census taker learns from his own neighbors (of varying nationalities and prejudices) a lot about oil and power (electrical and otherwise). A delegation of black-tarred sea creatures is led by TNC’s Mark Macanre as Father Neptune. Wait for Sarah Palin chanting “Drill, Baby, Drill!”
An estimated 150,000 people of all ages have relished the TNC shows that every summer since 1976 have made the rounds of streets, parks and playgrounds throughout the five boroughs. If only two percent of those onlookers are the better for it, that’s a plus. This one kicks off July 31, 2 p.m., East l0th St. at First Ave. (next door to Theater for the New City).
For a complete schedule of performances (July 31 through September 12), visit www.theaterforthenewcity.net.
