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show listings:
musicals
Make Nice? My Ass!!
Vital Theatre Company presents Make Nice? My Ass!!, which is
subtitled "The Republican Convention Welcome Wagon--The Variety
Show." This constantly changing production with a political bent runs late
nights on Thursdays in July and August (right up to the week of the Republican
Convention). The show will include entertainment of the most amusing sort, from
ballads to belly dancing, stand-up to theatre pieces, all in the spirit of
Making the Republicans Feel Welcome. The press release says that tickets are
$8, or $100 with proof of Republican Party membership.
THEATREOPENEDCLOSEDPERFORMANCESRUNNING TIMETICKETSCASTAUTHOR |
nytheatre.com
review
As I write these
words, we are just 33 days away from the start of the Republican National
Convention; New Yorkers are having all kinds of feelings about this imminent
event. Vital Theatre Company, in the true spirit of collegiality, has mounted
a weekly variety show, late nights every Thursday through the end of August,
that they're calling "The Republican Convention Welcome Wagon." Oh yes: the title
is Make Nice? My Ass! This kind of gives you a hint as to its
political bent. Topical satire is not dead, thank goodness; the folks at
Vital are serving up happy, healthy doses of the stuff at its funniest and
smartest. Democracy in action. It's a
delightfully classy affair—glittery sequined tablecloths with candles are
within reach of just about every seat, providing a place to park your drinks
while you enjoy the show. And the seats are not packed together so tightly as
if the audience were so many sardines: this is cabaret in comfort and style
(many of New York's other venues, starting with Roundabout's Studio 54, could
learn a lesson from these folks). But the material
is what we're here for, not the ambience. Master of ceremonies Ron McClary is
easy and quick-witted, a Carson-esque presence to anchor the evening. (He
also gets to demonstrate his versatility at the top of Act II, accompanying
himself on "The GOP Has Lost Its Mind," sung to the tune of a
famous Billy Joel song and containing the deathless sentiment "I've
switched from Texas Barbecue to Heinz 57 Sauce.") The acts are
different every week, but if they're of the caliber of what I saw, then you
can expect to be amused, aroused, and sometimes challenged by a variety of
politically-themed sketches, songs, and rants. Among the highlights the night
I attended: two clever monologues by Negin Farsad, who is half of the
comedy duo Madame Funnypants; Mike Teele's impersonation of a foul-mouthed
Dick Chaney letting his Senate colleagues know how he really feels (written
by Mark Loewenstern); a hilarious running gag, performed by Gary Littman and
written by Loewenstern and Teele, in which a Republican delegate from Texas
attempts to find an appropriate Broadway show for which to buy tickets; and a
very strange comic bit by Craig Fitzpatrick, mangling the history of
Christopher Columbus (he returned later on for the, shall we say, least
sophisticated travesty—"The Top 11 Movies That George W. Bush
Masturbates To"). Producer Aimée Hayes did an amusing segment reading
what seemed like authentic letters from audience members and/or friends. By far the most
affecting piece—the one that really got us thinking as well as laughing—was
Rob Sheridan's lecture/rant called "Thoughts and Conundrums." In it,
he ranged from the meanings of the words "conservative" and
"liberal" to the media coverage, or lack thereof, of the
just-released 9/11 Commission Report. Like a present-day Will Rogers, but
with Tom Smothers' sense of the absurd, Sheridan mined the bitter humor of
these current events without a trace of irony. If he's on the bill when you
see Make Nice? My Ass!, you will be in for a thought-provoking treat. Will Republicans
enjoy this as much as the choir-being-preached-to Democrats? Probably
not: this show is unabashedly partisan, I'm afraid. Which is to say, it's as
American as apple pie—more filling though, and with none of the calories. |