FringeNYC 2011 Reviews, Welcome to Eternity

So we're down to 1 performance.  That's it.  Then this whole crazy theater festival of awesomeness comes to a close. At least for my crew and I. There are still some shows I need to see and friends I need to support.  I did see the big namer..Yeast Nation, brought to you by the same folks that are responsible for Urine Town.  It was good.  Really good.  I was entertained throughout the entire 2.5 hours.  That's a lot for me.  I'm not huge on the musicals, so if one can entertain me for so long then they're doing something right.


I wanted to throw this up there.  It's our shining faces from the home page of Nytheatre.com when they posted our review...

So with Fringe truckin' along I thought I'd share some of the reviews that have come out.  The first one, and the main one for the fringe is through NYtheatre.com.  The are the only publication that I know of that aims to and succeeds at reviewing all shows in the Fringe Fest. every year.  They do this by hiring a gaggle of freelance writers and set the loose upon the city.  Now these could be peers, actual critics, freelance writers, or just anyone with a pen.  Luckily for the most part all are in the Theater world in some way so can objectively write about a show they've seen.  Our reviewer wrote an excellent article, loved our show, and loved the work Mary and I did.  This season I have been a little out of it with reviews and tickets and all that.  I've had way more to worry about with all these freakin lines!  It's a 2 person show that runs about an hour 20.  A lot of work has gone into this and a lot of spit has flown out of my mouth.  So it's with great pride that I present the nytheatre review.  Well...a snippet....

Saldarelli's dialogue is sharp, snappy, and fun and flows perfectly out of the mouths of Mary Schneider and Patrick Pizzolorusso. Schneider and Pizzolorusso share a nice rhythm and chemistry on stage and are on point with Saldarelli's quick, witty script. Pizzolorusso is hilariously neurotic and quirky as Patrick—he shines when he takes us through his plans for his graphic novel. Schneider is adorably charming and intelligent as Amanda: you can see the moments where she deftly switches from being lovingly supportive of Patrick's ideas, when she's being obligatorily patronizing, and when she truly has no clue what he's talking about. Schneider is wonderful in her "interrogation scene" as she tries desperately to stay on task of how she's read an interrogation is supposed to go, but is constantly derailed by her own sweetness and Patrick's disarming quality. Laura Konsin Shortt's staging makes great use of space and distance, creating great tension between the bride- and groom-to-be. If Welcome to Eternity lacks anything, it's earlier physical establishment of their love and intimacy for each other. It took awhile before I really felt these two loved each other deeply and had a connection (though perhaps this was part of the point), which perhaps could have been helped with a few small moments of physical contact early on or a little bit more intimacy in the opening dialogue.


Click here to read the full review


 Another review came from Linda at PataphysicalScience...the blog.  She had wonderful things to say about both the show and my acting last year and so I was delighted to hear she was attempting to see our show this year.  Which she liked!  It's of course a very different farce, but she was entertained.  And I'm thrilled to have been able to meet her face to face as opposed to virtually knowing each other. So hooray for new friends. And supportive new friends.  Her article is an overview review (sure I just made that up) about the play as a whole.  I could put excerpts but they wouldn't make sense out of context.  So here is a link to her blog.
Give her a follow if you're a blogger, or add her to your reader.  Something.  She's a pretty strong voice in the theater world here in NYC.  You know, she gets around.

Click here to read the full article

Alright.  So one more show to go and then we're done.  Unless we get Encores like last year.  But two years in a row?  We couldn't be that lucky.  And I think there are far more musicals this year.  So our little engagement play might be eeked out.

Who knows

A Shrewish Review as Promised

So here is the long awaited review for Taming of the Shrew.  Apparently we were a hit!  I wish I could have been there for the entire run.  But alas, the draw of points pulled me to SaraSLOWta, Florida.

So..here ya go...

nytheatre.com review

Martin Denton · September 16, 2008

The Taming of the Shrew is a play that often makes me uneasy; the reason why is contained in its title, which promises us a "shrew" who needs to be "tamed," which should give every 21st century American some pause. Petruchio, the tamer, says of his fiancee Katherine, "She is my goods, my chattels" and the modus operandi he uses to bend her to his will resembles nothing so much as breaking a wild horse.

But, as one expects from Shakespeare, there is much in Shrew that is poetic and/or wise, and the play is a ribald, raucous good time, at least when done without adornment and apology, which is exactly how director Joe Leo is serving it up in his new production of it for Misfit Toys Repertory Company. Leo does three things here that strike me as very smart: He keeps the play in its time and place. He retains the original play-within-a-play structure, which posits the story of Petruchio and Kate as a bawdy entertainment devised by some passing players, put on as a practical joke for an alcoholic ne'er-do-well called Christopher Sly (and Leo keeps Sly with us until the end of the play, which is seldom done, giving the last word to Sly himself, who exits determined to "tame" his own wife as he has learnt from the comedy he just saw; read more about Leo's dramaturgy here).

Probably most important, he gives us a Petruchio and Kate who come to both like and love one another, notwithstanding the one's opportunism and greed and the other's unbridled misanthropy. In Nathaniel Kressen and Fabiola Reis, the production has a lively, likable, sexy pair of lovers for us to root for, and we observe the precise moment when the two realize that they've fallen for each other.

(It occurs to me that you may need a synopsis of the play; here's one from SparkNotes.)

The entire production plays out on a mostly bare stage whose only dressing is a bench plus some occasional props. Period and status/character are established through the use of Helen Fey's excellent and exquisite costumes, which sometimes whimsically remind us of the commedia dell'arte style associated with the musicalized Shrew, Kiss Me, Kate, but mostly feel rooted firmly in the Elizabethan Era.

Kressen and Reis are among the strongest members of this uneven cast, and so Petruchio and Kate's story predominates; Reis may in fact be the best Kate I've ever seen, with an underlying intelligence and humor that makes her eminently sympathetic. Other standouts in the company include Sean Demers as Sly, Warren Katz as Gremio (elderly suitor to Kate's sister Bianca), and Bryan Webster as Kate and Bianca's father Baptista. Leo himself is delightful in the cameo role of Vincentio, and his scene with Kressen and Reis (where Petruchio devilishly commands Kate to treat the old man Vincentio as if he were a fair maiden) is one of the highlights of the show.

Leo's staging is fast and funny, never missing an opportunity for a gag or some shtick. Shakespeare's puns are punched up for comic effect, and antic scenes like the welcoming "dinner party" for Kate at Petruchio's house are amped up to the level of circus (literally: food is juggled, plates are spun, and servants clownishly collide).All serves to remind us that Shrew, upsetting as it may be to contemporary consciences, is a lark, and a goof, and indeed always has been and always will be. Leo lets us laugh at the frivolity without a single pang of P.C. worry. Well done.