-
BACKSTAGE WEST
The Fatty Arbuckle Spookhouse Revue begins with a playful
kazoo quartet and barrels from there into a sinister, vaudevillian bacchanal of gallows
humor.
Chris Jeffries' brilliant musical tells the tragic Fatty Arbuckle/ Virginia Rappe legend
through a surreal narrative set in a 1920's cinematic wonderland, with Alice (Piper Henry)
as the alluringly naive starlet. Fatty (Pierre Fromage) and his Thespian ensemble careen
Alice through smarmy pleasures, substance abuse, and other debaucheries, until the
initially pristine girl is roughened and wizened by her lasciviousness in the clamor for
stardom, then met with a grisly fate at the hands of her desires.
Skillfully using the violence and social commentary, subtle
and otherwise, in such immortal bits as Punch and Judy (Ben Currier and Alix Goodwin,
respectively), director John Sylvain and cast fashion a fairy tale of their own seamless
design. The story's elements, all bleak and comic, run in an apparently haphazard
direction, but the underlying plot is never lost, and the brazen tangents -- a football
game/orgy/football game/orgy (see it -- you won't believe it, but you'll get it), and a
sodden, yodeling musical bit with Andreas Olavarria's enchanting crooner's repertoire --
actually give the Arbuckle/Rappe story more resonance.
It's the Sacred Fools Theater's premiere Los Angeles
production, and it delivers amazing performances; foppish, baggy costumes (designed, along
with the set, by M.E. Dunn) which expertly bespeak the play's content, and a flawless live
band (Joel Zighelboim, Jonathan Dyke, Gene Lushtak, and Ben Currier) providing the gay and
lurid melodies. It's a relentless assault --one that may leave you repulsed, but
positively unable to contain your laughter.
- Ken Pfeil,
©1997 Backstage West
|
-
DRAMA-LOGUE
This production is the maiden effort from the
Sacred Fools Theater Company, and it is by no means a timid one. Using elements of
"Alice in Wonderland" and puppet theater such as "Punch and Judy" to
retell the tale of Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle's downfall, the production, complete
with music and dance numbers, demands your attention. It also, unfortunately, never quite
rewards that attention with a strong, cohesive plotline.
Using allegorical characters from the
aforementioned works, the play attempts to tell the story of Virginia Rappe, a starlet who
dies after being allegedly assaulted by Arbuckle during a weekend spree in San Francisco.
Arbuckle was tried for her death and, after four trials, eventually was acquitted. By that
point, however, his career was in ruin and he never completely recovered, dying a few
years later. Several books have researched the entire case to a fare-thee-well, with none
of the players coming out completely clean. It has been largely surmised, however, that
Ms. Rappe was far from the innocent she claimed to be, and Arbuckle was, more than
anything else, a victim of his own poor judgment with regard to party planning.
In this effort, however, Rappe is painted as
downright virginal, while Arbuckle is demonized to an alarming extent. The two are played
by Pierre Fromage and Piper Henry, both of whom put across convincing and heartfelt
performances despite the one-dimensional level of their characters. Actually, everyone on
stage does the same, investing themselves completely in their portrayals. Shelley Wenk
does a very nice turn as the Queen, prowling and chewing up scenery in grand style. Phil
LaMarr and Dan Etheridge are comical and appropriately whacky as Tweedledum and
Tweedledee, as are Kelly Hawthorne and Adam Bitterman as the March Hare and the Mad Hatter
(in this instance, representing silent stars on the fade). Ben Currier, Alix Goodwin,
David P. Moore, Martin Yu and Alan Reynolds are wildly over the top, and funnily so, and
the various puppet characters in the "Punch and Judy" segments, while Shana
Susman, Danielle Surrette and Tara Beth Connolly have a lot of fun as flapper/ dancer
gals. Andreas Olavarria as the Crooner and Sharon MacMenamin as the Script Girl also are
interesting, in that they take small parts and make them memorable. It's a big cast on a
small stage, and John Sylvain deserves much credit for keeping everyone moving at a
frenetic but controlled pace throughout. Ditto musical director Jonathan Goldstein, who
along with his band (Joel Zighelboim, Jonathan Dyke, Gene Lushtak, and Ben Currier) kept
the music bright and lively throughout, even making the darker numbers trot along
appropriately. Jason Bloom's lighting design is very effective, particularly when evoking
the eerier moments of the production. Set design and costumes also work throughout. Chris
Jeffries, who wrote the entire shebang, has tackled a personage and time period with verve
and gusto, succeeding sporadically.
The Alice concept works better than the Punch one, and
interchanging the two throughout often is confusing, particularly for audience members who
don't know the full story and didn't have time to read the rather lengthy program notes.
And the attempt to link Alice (Virginia Rappe) to the Virginia of "Yes, Virginia,
There Is A Santa Claus" really perplexes more than it compares "the suffering of
all Virginias." The writing is solid, however, especially in the songs, most notably
the Queen's homage to the lusty Hollywood. All said and done, there's an interesting
concept to be found here, but it requires more digging than it should. If nothing else,
however, the show's an interesting mix of music and theater that isn't often done, and
deserves recognition for that feat.
- Joe Morris,
©1997 DramaLogue
|
MUSICAL DIRECTION -
Jonathan Goldstein 