We’re not safe from President Trump, even in the theater. He
gets a mention or two in SpeakEasy’s comedy and the whole evening at Zeitgeist.
First let’s cover the crazy, funny love at SpeakEasy Stage.
BETWEEN RIVERSIDE AND CRAZY (playing through Oct. 13th)
is Stephen Adly Guirgis’ Pulitzer Prize winning comedy (and some ‘drama’ too)
about a gloriously dysfunctional family living in a rent controlled apartment
on Riverside Drive
But Guirgis has many more fish to fry in his play. This
shooting is only one. His brilliant, hilarious dialogue turns some heavy plot
twists into comic gold. Just when you think the Act I set-up is a little top
heavy, some surprising magical realism ties up every loose end… and you never
see the cogs that turn the dramatic wheel. Tyrees Allen is superb as the
irascible Pops. Everyone in director Tiffany Nichole Greene’s sharp cast is in
top form, especially Alajandro Simoes as a recovering drug and sugar addict, Stewart
Evan Smith as Pops’ world weary, depressed son and Octavia Chavez-Richmond as
the son’s wacky girlfriend BUT it’s Celeste Oliva who steals the show as the
red hot church lady. Don’t miss out on Guirgis’ love fest.
Much closer to the vest is Jon Robin Baitz’ cautionary tale
entitled VICUÑA (playing @ Zeitgeist Stage through Oct. 6th).
Without Baitz’ immensely serious prologue and epilogue (which he added after
the election) VICUÑA seems like a SNL send-up of the candidate. What makes it
remarkable is that Baitz wrote it during the 2016 presidential campaign, when
no one thought Trump could win… making VICUÑA the first theatrical imagining of
a Trump presidency. As absurd as he could make his play, of course, HE HAD NO
IDEA.
That’s the problem with the original script about the
candidate and his tailor, now presented as the first act. We’ve been there and
done that. And once we’ve experienced the entire evening, it’s the rewrites
that pack the punch. For cryin’ out loud, he made me think of DR. STRANGELOVE
(when Keenan Wynn’s colonel discovers Peter Sellers’ RAF officer breaking into
a vending machine and utters one of my favorite lines, “What kind of a suit do
you call that, fella?”) and that gets Baitz at least mentioned in the same
paragraph with Stanley Kubrick.
The nifty, sartorial magic in VICUÑA and some heavy post-apocalyptic
comeuppance for everyone (except you-know-who) gives the flimsy material of the
first act some weight. The new scenes are messy and some threads are lost but
you can’t dismiss Baitz’ righteousness. Director David Miller even keeps the
house lights on the whole time, making us complicit in the abomination that is
upon us in real life.
Miller’s cast is first rate, with Robert Bonotto leading the
pack as the astute tailor, shrewdly turning Baitz’ lines into witty repartee.
Steve Auger has the formidable task of turning Trump funny when it’s almost
impossible for us to think anything he does is humorous. Likewise with Srin
Chakravorty, as Trump’s daughter but Chakravorty has the epilogue to make her
human. Jaime Hernandez gives a riveting, edgy performance as the tailor’s
apprentice and Evelyn Holley gets to make the congressional republicans almost
as despicable as the current crop.
