‘Star Wars’ songs and a Spider-Man flop
Today’s Orlando Fringe Festival reviews: “Black Eye,” “Gone,” “Here Comes the Bride and Groom,” “The Spider Queen,” “Star Shanties” (highly recommended) and “Stone Man.”
A fun idea coalesces into something a little bit more in “Star Shanties” (Teal, 45 minutes, highly recommended). A group of not-smugglers-nopenot-us share some of the time-honored music of “space pirates” in this treat for “Star Wars” fans. Music fans also will be delighted with the rich harmonies and gusto that infuse the music, performed by professional singers.
Arthur Rowan has written just enough connecting material to let the audience recognize trope characters — the firm but fair captain, the man fleeing his checkered past, the gutsy gal in a man’s world — and peppered the dialogue with well-played local references, especially concerning a large theme-park company, for extra laughs.
Everyone on the crew of The Wretched Hive gets a chance to shine — and does — but Ryan J. Lynch’s overenthusiastic ray of sunshine is a particular standout.
For this to work, you’ll have to understand references like “It’s many a parsec from there to here” and know who Hondo Ohnaka is. If you do, this show is for you, and what’s that? Among the laughs, did I actually get a lump in my throat in a tribute to the destruction of Alderaan? Yep, there’s a dash of heart in there with the humor.
Also mixing heart and humor: Yanomi Shoshinz’s “Here Comes the Bride and Groom” (Pink, 60 minutes). “Welcome to the wedding!” she greets her audience.
Shoshinz, a Japanese
artist known for her clowning shows, presents her first foray into English-language standup in this gentle and affectionate look at Japanese wedding celebrations. Shoshinz knows of what she speaks: As a professional wedding emcee, she has watched more than 500 couples take the plunge.
Her act contains actual examples of speeches gone wrong, overwrought friends and wedding planners who will tell people anything to earn a few more bucks. Or yen, as the case may be. It turns out some things are universal.
She turns any language hiccups to her advantage by enlisting the audience to help her if she goes astray. But at my performance, she didn’t need our help; her show sweetly and humorously embodies the try-something-new spirit of the Fringe.
Another standup act, but one you wouldn’t describe as gentle, is “Black Eye” by Fringe vet Stephanie Morin-Robert. The Canadian
is happy to be back in Orlando. “Last time I was here, I got pregnant,” she cracks.
Her act touches on her childhood, in which she was diagnosed with a form a cancer that led to the removal of one of her eyes, but dwells mostly on her pregnancy. It’s funny stuff that occasionally makes you catch your breath in a “Can I really laugh at that?” way. If a phrase like “ricocheting placenta” makes you queasy, beware.
But Morin-Robert’s edginess isn’t only for effect. There’s a strong sense of “this is life, this is how it is, even when it’s messy” that makes the laughs ring truer. And if you can’t laugh at yourself, who can you laugh at?
Well, you could laugh at the disaster that was “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark,” the biggest flop in Broadway history. The Orlando Artist Guild, in partnership with ME Performing Arts, is staging “The Spider Queen” (Green, 60 minutes), an
intriguing and engaging behind-the-scenes look at the Spidey debacle, inspired by co-writer Berg’s book.
It’s a strongly cast show; Bryan Jager, who wrote the script and directs, captures the “I can’t believe this is happening” vibe of Berg, who sees a dream descending into nightmare. In smaller roles, Joel Swanson as a fey gossip columnist, TJ Washburn as an out-of-it Bono and Kyle Masteller as an evenmore-out-of-it The Edge score deserved laughs from Jager’s script that smartly mixes humor and facts. (A sequence of Bono’s nightmares is a delight.)
What the show lacks is a distinct perspective on its title character, Julie Taymor, the acclaimed director at heart of the mess. As usual, Jillian Gizzi is fiercely watchable, but at show’s end you still don’t have a clear picture if the show is saying Taymor was deluded, an artistic martyr or being unrealistically obstructionist because of
her preconceived ideas. Maybe that’s because history still hasn’t decided either, but dramatically it’s less than satisfying.
Also taken from real life: “Stone Man” (Blue, 60 minutes). Korczak Ziolkowski had a dream — to sculpt a memorial to the great Lakota chief Crazy Horse on a South Dakota mountain. In “Stone Man,” Steve Berglund takes a look at the sculptor.
Speaking as Ziolowski, who died in 1982, Berglund has a folksy manner and a Boston accent that turns “marble” into “mah-ble” while he sprinkles details into his script. Some stretches don’t vary enough in tone to avoid feeling like a university lecture (Bergland is a retired professor), albeit an interesting one.
Because of the show’s structure, Berglund doesn’t have a way to tell you the end of the sculpture’s story, which feels like a flaw, so I’ll let you in on it: Started in 1948, it still isn’t done.
But Ziolkowski wouldn’t be bothered. His mantra, as Bergland delivers with a twinkle in his eye, “Go slow and do it right.”
Finally, Naome Bradshaw has a true story, as well: It’s her own. Bradshaw is a survivor of generational trauma, which she discusses in a monthly radio segment on “The Jim Colbert Show.” Her show “Gone” (Purple, 60 minutes) also shares her story in a straightforward, natural manner that succeeds in making the audience feel at ease — and maybe open new conversations.
Bradshaw also is a professional singer, and she shines on her original songs, with Randy Nichols, from upbeat mountain music to empowerment anthems to the haunting title tune.
This isn’t a show about razzmatazz, it’s a show about truth. About confronting the scars of an abusive childhood and striving to overcome. Director Danielle Ziss lets Bradshaw tell her story simply, with moments of humor to soften the blows. And she nicely conveys how Bradshaw’s “trash bag of trauma” is getting lighter by the day.
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: $10 button is required for ticketed shows; then individual performance tickets are maximum of $15. Schedule, tickets and more info: OrlandoFringe.org