Topical, shmopical:
It’s a laugh riot
For introducing Charles Busch’s 2001 The Tale of the Allergist’s Wifeto Rochester
in a tasty production, the JCC deserves thanks. I kept missing the play and can
now report that the big fuss it received in New York
and across the country was justified.
It’s a Tony-nominated play by a drag
queen, better and wittier than Busch’s zany Psycho
Beach Party, Die! Mommy! Die!,or Vampire Lesbians of Sodom. CharlesBusch didn’t even need to play the lead
female in this play, as I loved seeing him do in those others.But though it wittily satirizes
contemporary urban angst, intellectual pretensions, fads and trends, and many
kinds of midlife crisis, The Tale of the
Allergist’s Wife is basically a hilarious goof.
Its plot includes a semi-invalid,
griping old mother yenta and three middle-aged folk — her whining yenta
daughter, her physician son-in-law, and a con-woman — none of whom are
exactly what they claim to be. Plus a doorman from Iraq.
And despite possible forgery, fraud, sexual confusions in a menage
a trois, threats of international terrorism, nervous
breakdowns, and violent fights, a good time is had by all.
Director Ralph Meranto
keeps this whirligig in frantic motion. The design staff provides a handsome
production. And five well-cast actors manage to create these outrageous
characters with sincerity, seeming to be unaware that they are in any way funny
or foolish.
Davida
Bloom is the intellectual housewife so distraught at the death of her therapist
that she “accidentally” smashes large crystal ornaments one-by-one on the floor
of an expensive shop. Cara D’Emanuele is her mother,
a semi-invalid (unless she wants to stride away angrily) who offers vividly
detailed bowel-related complaints whenever the others are dining. Roger Gans is the do-gooder retired physician who seems the voice
of reason until tempted sexually.
Connie Neer
is the wife’s suddenly re-found girlhood friend, who wants to see how many ways
she can tempt these people and sponge off them, while claiming to have known
intimately the world’s most famous and inaccessible celebrities of the past
five decades. And Carl Krickmire makes a droll and
real-seeming factotum doorman named Mohammed. Few upper-middle-class targets
survive unsplotched.
— Herb Simpson
You
should go if you like Charles Busch’s brand of hilarious, zany satire; if
you don’t believe “a good time” and “quality theater” are mutually exclusive
terms. Must be able to tolerate the ridicule of the
upper-middle class and contemporary urban angst.
The Tale of the Allergist’s WifeThursdays and Saturdays through May 21;
Sunday, May 15 | JCC Center Stage, 1200 Edgewood Avenue | $20-$22 | 461-2000 ext. 235, www.jccrochester.org
A royal pleasure
Attempt to say, three times fast:
“Life’s a pudding full of plums, care’s a canker that
benumbs. Wherefore waste our elocution, on impossible solution?” Can’t do it?
This unfeasible task belongs to the cast of The
Gondoliers, whose tongue-twisting, lip-tangling lyrics and 80
miles-per-hour beats are the work of the kings of the operetta, Gilbert and
Sullivan.
Walking into the gymatorium
of SalemChurch,
complete with its basketball hoops and folding chairs, you may be reminded of
the last elementary school production you attended. Don’t be fooled: The
Off-Monroe Players have been an underappreciated part of the Rochester
theater scene since 1989.
The plot is worthy of a Shakespearean
comedy, involving mistaken identities, a missing royal, torture, and bigamy.
Fun!
The shining stars of the show are the
Spaniards: The Duke of Plaza Toro, his imposing wife, and their distraught
daughter Casilda. Tracy Burdick’s frantic physical
performance as the greedy yet likeable Duke can only be described as Don Knotts meets the Mad Hatter. In contrast, Ann Rhody, perfectly cast as the Duchess, is straight, strong,
and stern. But it is Holly Corcoran, as the beautiful but blighted Casilda, who steals the show. She strikes each high note
with ease, and her soaring voice inspire chills.
Director SarajaneFondiller updates the show by setting the second act
in 1950s New Orleans. Although the
choice allowed for awesomely decked out dames in crinolines, the Mardi Gras theme was unnecessary. The super-sized cast rollicks
joyfully, but in ensemble dance scenes, the stage is crowded to the point that
the twirling and flailing seems dangerous.
One would think (and, frankly, wish)
that Gilbert and Sullivan could have told their story in less than 30 songs.
But the cast plays them with such indulgent enthusiasm you can’t help but
enjoy.
— Erin Morrison-Fortunato
You
should go if you like a good-natured, over-the-top musical melee, full of
tongue twisters, plot twists, and twisty dance numbers: basically, Gilbert
& Sullivan.
Gondoliers Fridays and Saturdays
through May 21 and Sunday, May 15 | Off-Monroe Players, SalemUnitedChurch,
60 Bittner Street | Free |
234-0500, www.off-monroeplayers.org
User-friendly
dance
It’s short,
it’s inexpensive, it’s fun, and it’s your last chance this year to see it. The
Contemporary Dance Collective — a modern dance umbrella group that includes
Park Avenue Dance Company, Calabash Dance Company, Hallmark Danceworks,
Hendrick Dance Project, and Present Tense Dance
Company — is doing the good and sometimes difficult work of expanding the
audiences for modern dance. But they had the good sense not to leave the fun
out of it.
To make the
series what Calabash’s Richard Haisma calls
“user-friendly,” CDC opened the series to choreographers, particularly young
choreographers looking to show their work at a professional venue.Haisma describes the series as “unique, fresh, and
full of vibrant young dancers.”
— Erica
Curtis
You should go if you
can’t get enough of new, contemporary choreography. Or, if
you’re not a modern dance fan yet, but you’re in the mood for some energetic,
fresh entertainment.
Contemporary Dance Series Sunday, May 15 | BushMangoDrum & DanceCommunity
Center, 34 Elton Street | 4:30 p.m. |
$10, $8 students
This article appears in May 11-17, 2005.
