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Kinky Neon Rocker
Reviewed by Lyle Zimskind
Lounge Theatre
Through June 27
RECOMMENDED:
A psychedelically neon-painted rocking chair appears in each of this show’s six otherwise unrelated two- and three-character playlets written by different members of The Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights — though only in Ron Burch’s closer, “Objectum Sexuality,” does it really get kinky.
A couple of the early pieces fall flat, but most have strong moments and performances in them. In “Lesbian Vixens of the SS in ‘Hitler’s Off His Rocker,’” by Dan Berkowitz, wannabe sub-indie filmmaker Aaron Rabinowitz (Matt Palazzollo) is disappointed to learn that the low-budget exploitation flick he and two actresses (Royana Black and Melissa Brandzel, costumed as Nazi sexpots) are rehearsing is really just a low-budget play and the lowest kind of low-budget play at that, a Fringe show in a 99-seat Los Angeles theater.
Later on, Michael Van Duzer’s “Gardening for Beginners” brings Palazzollo back in a very different mode as Matt, the more emotionally eager partner in a young gay couple, along with Morgan (Kareem Ferguson), excited to buy a house together. When a second scene reveals their relationship has fallen apart, Palazzollo’s wrenching anguish tells us all we need to know with no intervening back story.
An elderly Jewish woman’s (Annie Abbott) instructions to her resistant adult daughter (Melissa Brandzel) about what to do with her when she dies are more like demands, in Judith Allen’s poignant “It’s Your Funeral.” And then there’s that final play, the one where the production’s eponymous chair finally gets its big moment. The chair, named Rocky, joins her romantic partner Mike (J.P. Hubbell) in couples’ therapy with Dr. Santos (Ron Bottitta). Bottitta plays the perfect, skeptical straight-man as Mike describes and then engages in lovemaking with Rocky. And Mike just gets indignant when Dr. Santos suggests he might be anthropomorphizing that chair a bit.
David Fury directs the entire slate.
Lounge Theatre, 6201 Santa Monica Blvd., Hlywd.; https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/2187?
Stupid Songs
Reviewed by Lyle Zimskind
Lounge Theatre
Through June 26
RECOMMENDED:
Stupid Songs isn’t just a show, it’s an L.A.-based company of performers who have created five comedic revues since 2013, including this Hollywood Fringe debut edition. In a production of almost 20 original musical sketches, it’s reasonable to hope that half of them won’t be total clunkers. But one genuinely funny song after another, with no mere time-killers? Highly unlikely, but that’s what this show delivers. Several of the sketches are downright memorable.
Other than the very clever opening and closing scenes, which relate directly to the Fringe Festival experience, there aren’t any big ensemble numbers and no unifying theme that links one song to the next. (Most of the songs were written by the cast members who perform them, both solo and in small combinations.)
Among the best: Sarah Wolter has an uneasy duet with the neighbor she suspects of murdering girls. Laura Hughes has penned a solo folk song denying the existence of Montana (a “lie,” a “conspiracy of cartography”). Gabe Oliva and Aaron Matijasic play a couple of sailors on leave and on the prowl in Gay Paree (feeling “lonely and defeated” because “no one has secreted”). Jason Currie shows off his neo-sexy “dad bod,” which “says I’m confident and Crossfit sucks” and “lets you know that I give zero fucks.” Selyna Warren has a chanteuse-y torch song (performed in a red-sequined-gown) about her “little crush on Robert Durst,” whom she loves for “talk[ing] to himself in the night.” And plenty more.
Even the only moderately witty songs hit the mark thanks to winning performances by a cast that director Keri Safran has encouraged to sell the material they’re putting forward, without — and this is crucial — without ever overselling it. There is not a single hammy, laugh-begging or look-at-me line delivery in the whole show. SNL should try that.
Lounge Theatre, 6201 Santa Monica Blvd., Hlywd.; https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/2145
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