Theatre Review: RETURN TO THE FORBIDDEN PLANET

[Mark R. Leeper]

RETURN TO THE FORBIDDEN PLANET
A theatre review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1991 Mark R. Leeper

Back in the 1960s there were a bunch of novelty records that were
popular. They would tell a story and illustrate it with little snatches
from rock 'n' roll classics. They would say something like, "Martians have
landed in Washington. How do you feel about that, Mr. President?" Then you
would hear Elvis Presley singing, "I'm all shook up!" "Well, do you have a
message for the Martians?" Then you would hear from "Flying Purple People
Eater," "Pleee-ese don't eat me." It should be noted that the stories told
this way were a long way from winning Pulitzer Prizes, but of course nobody
expected a good story from one of these outings. The story was secondary to
the clever choices of rock and roll snatches.

Now suppose you wanted to do that sort of thing in a larger format--say
a play. You want to tell the story of the film FORBIDDEN PLANET and cut to
rock and roll classics. Of course, it would have to be a campy retelling,
but then you have a tradition and audience from ROCKY HORROR SHOW and LITTLE
SHOP OF HORRORS you can play to. And say, isn't FORBIDDEN PLANET a
reworking of Shakespeare's TEMPEST? Let's write all the dialogue in
pseudo-Shakespearean style. (A minor aside: FORBIDDEN PLANET does take the
basic situation of THE TEMPEST as a springboard and borrows an idea or two.
In my experience the people who most vehemently say that FORBIDDEN PLANET
retells THE TEMPEST are also the people least familiar with THE TEMPEST.)
Now as long as we are imitating Shakespeare, let's throw in a bunch of puns
on the Bard's most famous lines ("I cannot tell if it is one beep or two."
"Two beeps or not to beeps....").

To bring all this together into one rambunctious stage play requires a
great deal of undeniable talent. So does building a huge standing structure
out of many decks of playing cards. In each case, however, whether you are
really entertained watching them do it is a matter of taste. Certainly the
plot itself does nothing to entertain the audience nor is it intended to.
It intentionally is a stupid skit borrowing a little from FORBIDDEN PLANET
but avoiding any real human drama and certainly any science fiction value.
As I am sure even author/director Bob Carlton would tell me, the plot is not
really the point. This story has less to do with the human condition than a
liverwurst sandwich has to do with the kings of Siam. This is the sort of
play where if it is easier to have the spaceship inexplicably drawn to the
planet rather than told to stay away, you do that. So what makes this
planet "forbidden"? Well, it was expected you would not notice the title
does not fit. That isn't the point. For that matter, if there is not even
an explanation in the plot why the spaceship is drawn to the planet, that is
not the point either. The point is to sit there and have a good time and to
turn your mind off. Way, way off. Unfortunately even turning my mind to
its lowest setting, I still found the lack of any sort of story to be a
serious problem.

The point, of course, is first of all to hear some classic rock and
roll music performed live. Next it is to see some gimmicky pyrotechnic
staging, in some cases quite literally pyrotechnic. Third, it is to hear
some jokes. Acting is optional, though talent is not. The actors in this
play are also the band and they seem to trade musical instruments as readily
as they trade quips. If one of the trombone players has a bad cold he could
take out a big piece of the cast. Most talented is Gabriel Barre, who plays
Ariel the robot and does pretty much anything anyone else in the cast can
do, but he does it on roller skates. If this play has another actor it is
Louis Tucci as Cookie the ship's cook. The cook ends up in a rather silly
love triangle competing with the ship's captain, a Robert Goulet look-alike.
Cookie demonstrates emotions deeper than a quarter of an inch, which makes
him a real stand-out.

The staging is a very important part of this play. The entire theatre
becomes the inside of a spaceship. The ship itself is a cross between
junkyard-parts-tacky and Las Vegas lights. At appropriate moments strange
and unexpected things happen which are mechanically triggered. And, of
course, the set only enhances to pre-show hi-jinx. This is one of those
plays that actually starts fifteen minutes before the time on your ticket,
so arrive early if you go.

This is a play that never works well, but with all the patchwork of
intentionally mismatched parts, it is amazing it works at all.

Mark R. Leeper
att!mtgzy!leeper
lee...@mtgzy.att.com