The Brothers Grimm Specaculathon - review

[Jane Zussman]

What a refreshing change of pace from our previous two excellent-but-serious shows! 

LCC’s The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon is pure fun. Blake Bowen’s madcap cast romps through Don Zolidis’s fairy tale spoof script, juggling pop culture references and slapstick comedy. It’s a no-intermission hour and a half of fairy-tale fun.

Kudos to Blake for action packed blocking that kept actors moving and turning to play to the audience in the round. Two castle/magic house entrances and a Rapunzel tower framed a “wood” floor with two all-purpose trunks that served as prop containers and mobile set pieces. Cheers to the many people who helped with costume and prop construction, fueling the quick costume changes including fun masks, beards, wigs… even puppets.

The entire cast was funny and fast-paced. (Amirah Abaalkhail, Ally Estrada, Denise Huguez, Robert Jacob, Avery Martin, Rachel Ngasala, Zander Pearce, Isaac Samara, and Gavin Taylor) The show opened with narrator Isaac overwhelmed by manic ringmistress Ally, hawking the “spectaculathon” complete with acrobatics. The women (and occasionally the men playing women) would occasionally get shrieky-high-voiced to the point where some lines were lost. 

Blake’s interesting program note describes the origins of fairy tales and their warnings about coping with a dangerous world, as well as portraying archetypal evil-doers to help confront fears. Modern-day female identity issues and other “updates” brought laughs and perhaps a little perspective. 

Blake says, “What you’ll see tonight isn’t about presenting perfect stories, but about the joy of telling them together.” This production is full of joy, and even breaks the fourth wall a bit to include the audience in the synergistic joy.

The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon continues tomorrow, Sunday at 2pm and next Friday and Saturday at 7pm at LCC’s Black Box stage 1422 Gannon Building. Enter at the stage door facing Grand Avenue and follow the hall to the box office to get a FREE voucher to attend. It’s general seating and a smallish space of only 100-ish seats, so get there early to assure admission.

Jane Zussman

G.L.U.T. List

(Greater Lansing Ubiquitous Theatre)

cell 517-930-0932

JSZu...@gmail.com

http://www.greaterlansingtheatre.net 

To review past emails as they were sent, click “About the G.L.U.T.” and choose “email list” from the drop-down menu — also check out the all-theatres calendar.

“Like” us on Facebook!