Feel the ‘Fury’ or send up Sondheim
Today’s Orlando Fringe Festival reviews: “Breakfast with Andy,” “The Complete Stephen Sondheim (Abridged)”, “Food Court” and “Fury” (highly recommended).
Wait, there is a Stephen Sondheim disco album? That was a fun discovery in “The Complete Works of Stephen Sondheim [Abridged]” (Green venue, 60 minutes).
If you are a Sondheim freak (and there are a lot of you out there), this is a humorously affectionate romp through the hits — “A Little Night Music,” “Sweeney Todd,” “Into the Woods” — that refreshingly isn’t afraid to poke fun at the tropes and even the weaknesses (yes, a Sondheim show can have flaws) in the master’s oeuvre.
Performers Bryan Jager, Jarrett Poore, Rachel Hope Ihasz and Marissa Volpe have the perfect touch for this and just enough characterization to raise the comic level — Jager is the fanatic, Poore the worrywart, Volpe the diva and Ihasz the trickster.
The content is smart and engaging — but I hesitate to give examples, as those who aren’t musical-theater buffs won’t get it, and I don’t want to spoil a moment for those who are.
The show is particularly entertaining when they subtly take on the vocal mannerisms of the Broadway greats they’re referencing. Or when they turn on each other for slights imagined or real.
The ending could be punchier, but for those who get it — as the kids say on the socials, “If you know, you know” — this is a rollicking good time.
And now, dear readers, I fear it may be too late to tell you of “Fury” (Blue venue, 45 minutes, highly recommended).
It takes a special kind of performer to marry absurdist clowning to Greek tragedy and then suddenly make it all not only relevant to today’s world but extremely moving. Chilling and moving. Lauren Bone Noble is that kind of performer. Her bizarre outfit of face paint, feathers and lumps is perfection, to start with, and her quick-witted clowning scores laugh after laugh.
By the time she moves into the story of Medea — the woman immortalized in literature for murdering her children — the air crackles with energy. And when things then turn more contemporary, you can hear a pin drop. A beautiful, emotional and surprising stage effect at the show’s conclusion is the cherry on top.
Unfortunately, a limited
performance schedule means it might already be too late to experience this one-of-a-kind show. But if you can, see it.
“Breakfast with Andy” (Savoy, 60 minutes) also has murder in mind. The show has the makings of an intriguing thriller, but Michael Freeman’s play of suspense isn’t there yet — at least not with what a Fringe venue can provide.
Crass and racist Ken meets his lifelong friend Andy for a weekly diner breakfast, where the conversation invariably turns to finding a new home for Andy, who lives in a rundown part of town. Andy has bigger fears than that, though: A woman has been murdered in his apartment building, and he believes the cops are getting it wrong.
The plot involves the supernatural, but the limited tech doesn’t do much to convey fear or suspense. Director Paul Castaneda encourages his actors to create strong characterizations: Travis Eaton playing obnoxious with gusto, Jon Jiminez almost visually shrinking as timid Andy, Jac LeDoux as
a gossipy waitress who gets the best one-liners.
But no one particularly talks or acts like people do in real life, and the unlikely friendship between Andy and Ken isn’t fleshed out enough to be believable in this repetitive and dark undertaking that never thrills like it should.
Traveling from a diner to the mall, we find “Food Court” (Brown, 60 minutes), a play by Beverly Coyle and directed by Michele Cuomo, Seminole State College dean of Arts and Communication. In Coyle’s play, a man with Parkinson’s disease strikes up a very unlikely friendship with a young woman facing her own medical issues.
At my performance, understudy Matthew Gennell convinced as a man wrestling with his diagnosis. Taylor Jewell comes on strong as the young woman, but aptly shows that perhaps her bravado is a front.
Coyle has a lot to say — about big business destroying the planet, about the best kinds of sex and more. But the overall theme of her work remains hazy: Could
it be as simple as a random encounter can set lives on a new path? Or everything — good and bad — is a just a matter of chance? I’m still not sure.
ORLANDO FRINGE FESTIVAL
Where: Most shows take place at the Lowndes Shakespeare Center, Orlando Repertory Theatre, Orlando Museum of Art and the Renaissance Theatre at or near Loch Haven Park. Show venues in those locations are identified by color; off-campus locations are identified by name.
When: Through May 30 Cost: A $10 button is
required for ticketed shows; then individual performance tickets are a maximum of $15.
Schedule, tickets and more info: OrlandoFringe.org