Love, Laughter
and Lies
2Co’s Cabaret
The Short North, Columbus, Ohio
by Rick Brown
Ah yes…the “three
L’s”. 2Co Cabaret can present the romantic side of
love, love lost, or the longing for love in a most realistic performance.
But the talented company always seems to cover all the bases in
their shows. A chick flick this ain’t…and that’s
what makes the totality of their performances relevant. No one
is bullshitting you. The centerpiece for Love, Laughter and Lies
is the opening piece,T.S. Stobart’s Ever After…a brutally
honest story of two unlikely people falling in love. But are they
really all that unlikely? How many times have you found yourself
thinking about the person who sells you a cup of coffee in your
building at work? I for one still find myself pondering the time
my eyes locked with a lovely young woman’s while she rang
up 4 quarts of Quaker State Motor Oil at a cash register in a
discount store in Brookpark, Ohio. And that happened in 1968.
I’m not sure this is hopelessly romantic or I’m just
a friggin’ idiot. I’ll leave that up to you.
Ever After traces the romance of Ellen…a young woman played
coyly and honestly by Lydia Tew…who finds herself drawn
to an older somewhat skeptical gentleman performed with a definite
air of experience by Chris Lynch…named Fred. Fred runs the
little coffee shop in Ellen’s place of work. Try as they
might not to…they find themselves discovering an attraction
and a common desire to be happy and loved. And at first they are
happy. But when they begin to share each other’s dreams
and aspirations Ellen backs away, explaining to Fred that their
dreams are different enough to break things off. Ellen cannot
live Fred’s dream. Fred cannot live Ellen’s. “I
can’t” is all Ellen can say. (Sound familiar?) This
performance was so powerful that when the lights went down…after
the dreams were over…after the hurt and pain is exposed
and the man and woman walk off in different directions…the
audience sat there…too deeply moved to applaud. Applause
may have been inappropriate anyway.
After a couple songs by the house band…most notably The
Pretender’s “Talk of the Town” sung delightfully
by woman/child Erin Karla…came Matterhorn…a wonderfully
cynical one act play about a couple standing in line at Disneyland
to ride the Matterhorn roller coaster. This could very well have
been the previous play’s characters had they put blinders
on and married each other. Yelling at the kids…nagging each
other…griping…all the things couples do in the scorching
heat while in an enormous line at an amusement park…this
particular couple decides rather than divorce they would put all
their cards on the table and be honest about the fact that…well…they
hate each other. Actors Tom Cardinal and Stephanie Shull are so
convincing I’m sure a lot of the crowd could see their parents
in the characters. Or…perhaps themselves.
Charles Bukowski’s “Funny Man” and “Playtime”
were inspiringly orated by Chris Lynch and Gabe Smith respectively.
But Ann L. Smith’s interpretation of a soliloquy from Jules
Feiffer’s , Little Murders was arguably the high point of
the second half. A dance skit entitled Cheek to Cheek…written
by John Pielmeier…involving He (the groom at his wedding
played convincingly by Tom Cardinal) and She (a bridesmaid who
is his former and soon to be…once again…his current
lover…a sexy yet somewhat sinister Megan Overholt) dancing
at the reception. Sniping and backstabbing about all the people
at the wedding they’ve…uh…been with. Cheek to
Cheek…wonderfully choreographed by Katy Psenicka and directed
by Julie Klein…proved to be a sarcastically good ending
to an honest look at the realities of love, romance and relationships.
As usual, the house band…Downtown DFN…provided quality
covers of tunes I’ve yet to hear other bands attempt. Joni
Mitchell’s “Case of You” sung by Stephanie Shull
was nothing short of outstanding. Jonny Lang’s (Jonny Lang?)
“Lie To Me”…as sung skillfully by Kori Billiat…was
a fitting exclamation point for Cheek to Cheek . And I have to
mention Christina Connor’s rousing rendition of Led Zeppelin’s
“Hey, Hey What Can I Do” was like…uh…it
was like a bucket full of lust! A hot, smarmy, overflowing bucket
full of LUST!!! John Prine’s “In Spite of Ourselves”
was a real standout also. Gabe Smith and Lydia Tew…dressed
as trailer park trash…interpreted and performed the song
with such outlandish brazenness that I believe…had he been
there…Mr. Prine might very well have blushed from his own
laughter.
Ah yes…the three L’s…Love, Laughter and Lies.
Throw in some great music…and perhaps a bucket full of lust…and
you’ve got an evening of great entertainment…with
a big dose of reality.
Love, Laughter and Lies is now playing at 2Co Cabaret Wednesday
through Saturday nights until May 17.
For more information go to their website at 2Co's
Cabaret.
Peace, Love
and Shadowbox
Shadowbox Cabaret
Easton Towne Center (yuch!), Columbus, Ohio
by Rick Brown
Opening with Kenny
Rogers and the 1st Edition’s “Just Dropped In (To
See What Condition My Condition Was In) house band BillWho!?…fronted
admirably by Michael Duggan for this bit of psychedelia …Shadowbox
Cabaret kicked the door wide open for a look back to the days
of the draft, pot smoking, Dinah Shore and the peace movement.
All this “nostalgia” performed with a backdrop of
an invasion on Iraq and America being polarized almost as much
as it was in the 1960’s, Peace, Love and Shadowbox’s
show has an eerie irony that I’m sure wasn’t in the
original plans. The relevance of peace and love in the context
of war…an undeclared war at that…certainly changed
the atmosphere from one of nostalgia to a surprising urgency.
Continued
below...
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In
This Issue
Preaching
to the Choir
by roberto lynch
I
suppose that by the time this column hits cyberspace, Baghdad
and most of Iraq will be smoking ruins. There won't be any General
Colin Powell urging a Bush President to use restraint. Nothing
to stop the U.S. military juggernaut from rolling into Baghdad.
This time there will be no sparing Saddam…he is pretty
crafty, and might even escape the U.S./Brit dragnet…but
his days of doing business in Iraq are over. And that is a good
thing. I don't think that there will be much resistance from
the Iraqis-- Saddam is not exactly Churchill. He is a gangster,
a common thief who is richer than god, a murderer, a terrorist,
and he deserves to hang …I hope they catch him and send
him to the Sebah family…the emirs of Kuwait. They will
cut off his head-twice.
Continued...
War:
Never Pure, Never Easy
by Ted Kane
"As people
assemble, Civilization is trying to find a new way to die."
--Pete Townshend, Pure and Easy.
Well, this space
was originally going to be filled with an account of my annual
trip to Tucson for spring training and a visit with my folks.
But, a funny ... actually, no, a tragic thing happened on
the way to my writing the PotLuck column for this month's
issue. On March 19th, 2003, a day that will live forever in
infamy, the United States unleashed a dastardly attack upon
the nation of Iraq in defiance of--for starters--international
law and the better part of the world's popular opinion. I
know a lot of people feel that now that the war is on it's
not appropriate to criticize the President or the war effort.
I'm not one of those people, however, although I am to a certain
extent sympathetic to the concerns held by those who hold
to that point of view in good conscience. (a clause which
would exclude virtually anyone in the employ of the State
Department (and/)or Fox News) The following is intended to
be a stream of consciousness account of my attitudes toward
the ongoing war and, as such, is unlikely to be the best piece
of writing I will have ever produced. So, I ask you to bear
with me as I feel that it is important to try to do this,
for my own sake if nothing else.
Continued...
Gulf War II: The Bush's Revenge
by
Cory Tressler
This current war that
the United States government has gotten troops and citizens
involved with is unjust and unprovoked. Ultimately, it can be
viewed only as a capitalistic crusade to control a country that
defies the United States, like a little brother defying his
big brother. Now I'm not going to say Saddam Hussein is the
most sane and reasonable man in the world, but why are we invading
his country? The last gulf war was a result of Hussein invading
Kuwait in an attempt to overthrow their government and take
control of their land, to me this sounds like the exact thing
the United States government is doing to Iraq.
Continued...
Henri's
Big Adventure
By Yvonne Brown
It had been six months
since we had been out of town, even just for a weekend. We all
needed to get away bad! So I searched on the internet for cabins
in Ohio that would accept pets. We of course wanted to take
our dog, Henri. I found a new place in the Hocking Hills area
called Summit Haven Retreat. We have been to the area many times
and in our younger days we tent camped and hiked there. We had
also been to some very nice cabins near Old Man’s Cave,
but this was just far enough away to be a new experience.
Continued...
Blank
Sight
by Jonh M. Bennett
The Farm
A Short Story
by Patrick O'Malley
We worked hard
in the field that day, which was actually quite beautiful.
The sun shone brightly, and I used the labor to help forget,
as usual. He used it, I imagine, to take his mind away from
the evil impulses that he couldn’t satisfy with Erin
away, although she would return soon. Apparently the pressing
business of the coming harvest was enough to sooth his temper,
and it was days like this that I could almost forget, for
a moment, his true nature and past atrocities. But I knew
all too well the evil that lurked below his superficial,
hard-working-farmer façade.
Continued...
Coldplay
Sunday March 9, 2003 - Promowest Pavilion
by Jonah Baldwin
Going to Promowest is never my favorite
activity. Not only are there sound reasons to dislike
the venue on a very practical level, but I also have something
of a personal vendetta against it. The genius who designed
the place, assuming either that people are all the same
height and would have no problem seeing over each others
head or that they would be so considerate as to line up
shortest in front to tallest in back, put no grade in
the floor and made the stage entirely too low. The place
is usually packed with corporate types for whom this is
just an evening out with the lady friend of the hour.
Promo also systematically deprives my favorite venue The
Newport, which they also own, of anything resembling a
dignified band. I could go on. But needless to say, I
was only half looking forward to this show.
Continued...
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Joan Baez
March 21, 2003
Southern Theater, Columbus, Ohio
by Rick Brown
The first time I ever
saw Joan Baez was long ago on a show called “Hootenanny”
which had many of the late 50’s and early 60’s mainstream
folk acts, appearing each week at different college campus around
the U.S.A. Several years later I went to see the film Woodstock
with one of my college roommates while WE were in college. As
we were leaving the theater Steve looked at me and in all earnestness
stated, “Well, I’m in love with Joan Baez again.”
Indeed. About ten years ago I caught one of her performances
in Columbus and thought to myself the very same thing. But it
was the concert I just witnessed, where I believe I saw the
depth and devotion of this American treasure.
With another immoral and unjust war beginning to unfold only
days before the performance, the backdrop eerily resembled that
of Woodstock once more…except that the “Woodstock
Generation” has in some cases… well… gotten
a little long in the tooth. Yet it became obvious early in the
show that Ms. Baez’s dedication to peace … as well
as the vast majority of the audience’s … remains
as strong as ever. Earlier in the day on National Public Radio
I heard Baez refer to the president as a “Messionic Sociopath”.
That comment was nothing compared to this joke she told about
halfway through the show…and I’m paraphrasing here:
Three micro-surgeons are bragging to each other about their
most successful operations. The first surgeon exclaims, “I
once had a patient who blew off all his fingers with fireworks.
I successfully re-attached them and now he’s a concert
pianist!” To which the second micro-surgeon countered,
“That’s nothing. I once had a patient who was in
a terrible, terrible accident and lost both his arms AND his
legs! I re-attached them and now he is an Olympic sprinter and
has won a gold medal!” Not to be outdone by his colleagues
the third doctor shouts, “Great! But not like the time
I had a cowboy patient who rode his horse head on into a moving
freight train! All I had to work with was a cowboy hat and a
horse’s ass. Now he’s President of the United States!!”
Ms. Baez then apologized
to the conservatives who were brave enough to attend her concert
and added, “but you’re going to be outnumbered here
tonight.” She was right. Ahhhh…to be amongst my
own in Columbus, Ohio! It doesn’t happen too often.
Joan Baez’s voice is not what it used to be. Her range
is smaller. But given the fact that in her youth her vocal range
was about 3 times anybody else’s, it doesn’t matter
as much as with most performers. And she still possess that
gentle strength and beauty that made my roomie Steve fall in
love with her numerous times. She spoke of spending a year of
her childhood in Baghdad because her father worked on location
there. Baez also took time to speak about visiting Hanoi in
1972 to deliver mail to our P.O.W.’s. She spent 11 days
in the city while it was carpet-bombed, much the same way the
cities of Iraq are right now. She played a tape of the bombing
she had made at the time to more than underscore her point.
It was quite powerful. Ms. Baez obviously has no delusions about
what war really and truly is. I wish the president were so wise.
But while Ms. Baez…who by many people’s standards
might be “unpatriotic” for protesting war…was
in the thick of battle getting messages to soldiers from their
loved ones…Mr. Bush was AWOL from the National Guard.
How’s that for juxtaposition?
And for those of you reading and possibly wondering…yes
there was music…glorious folk music! And we sang a lot
of tunes along with the gracious Ms. Baez and her superb band.
“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”, “Joe
Hill”, the powerful and moving “Jerusalem”,
and Steve Earle’s “Christmas in Washington”
were perhaps the shiniest of the gems. I noticed “folkie
stuff” that I hadn’t contemplated in years…like
stools. Folk singers sit on stools! This may seem like a terribly
mundane observation on my part to most. But for anyone who has
ever slung an acoustic guitar around their neck…pulled
a harmonica holder over their head…and sang about peace,
love and understanding in songs like “Where Have All the
Flowers Gone” or “Michael Row the Boat Ashore”…well…we
remember our stools fondly. When you stand up and play they
become a table for picks, drinks, said harmonica…or possibly
even a visual aid or two. My stool…which my wife gave
to me for birthday way back in the twenty something years…was
a better partner than half the human beings I’ve played
music with. But I digress into personal nostalgia.
One of the highlights of the evening for me was Baez’s
powerful rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Lily, Rosemary
and the Jack of Hearts”. Not only was it grand musically
but the last verse featured a dead on impression of Bob’s
singing…a maybe not so subtle tongue in cheek poke at
Bobby…who was once yet another one of Joan’s many
boyfriends. Surpassing this however was Ms. Baez’s return
to the stage for an encore of “Amazing Grace” in
which she led the entire audience. The Southern Theater is a
beautiful place with awesome acoustics. And I was delightfully
surprised at how lovely the a cappella rendering ended up being.
I mean …here are a bunch of folks who don’t know
each other singing their hearts out and it sounds as if a choir
is brilliantly performing “Amazing Grace” in the
world-renowned acoustics heaven of the Baptistery in Pisa, Italy.
Perhaps some of you…especially those who have visited
this building next to the Leaning Tower…might think I’m
exaggerating. I guess you had to be there. You should have been
there. I only wish the circumstances in the world weren’t
so déjà vu presently. Believe what you want. But
I know I speak for my friend Steve…who passed away several
years ago…had he been there that communal evening…”Well…I’m
in love with Joan Baez again.” Indeed.
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Katy Psenicka’s touching version of the Youngblood’s
“Let’s Get Together” would have made Jess Colin
Young proud. Moving swiftly into Trashin’ the Draft promoted
as a WORLD PREMIER based on the song “Alice’s Restaurant”
by Arlo Guthrie…I couldn’t help but be a bit nonplussed
at the outset. Aren’t some of these people old enough to
remember the song itself? And the fact that it was made into a
movie? But as the actors…deftly led by Jimmy Mak as Arlo
himself… settled into the all too familiar plot I set my
reservations aside. After all…Mr. Mak was doing a carefully
crafted…respectable Arlo Guthrie…who ironically I
had just seen last summer. (No…he didn’t sing “Alice’s
Restaurant”) I came to the sad conclusion that…once
again…unlike what I assumed the troupe’s original
intentions may or may not have been…there is a NEED for
plays questioning war, the government, the armed services. Peace
and love have obviously never gone out of fashion. I guess people
have to die for a lot of us to see that. And I reminded myself
how Guthrie’s movie about this wonderful song really…really…sucked.
Although we no longer have the draft…and fearless leader
Donald Rumsfeld really feels the military is better off now without
it…insultingly so…the ridiculousness of not getting
the opportunity to kill the “enemy” because of a conviction
on littering charges, still fits into the neo-rationalism of the
reasons we are now … once again … consumed by a conflict
no one seems to understand. Appropriately enough, immediately
after the closing curtain of a fine performance of Trashin’
the Draft, BillWho? charged head first into Buffalo Springfield’s
protest anthem “For What It’s Worth” and although
I felt the rendition lacked a bit of passion…I may have
felt so only because I’ve been playing this song since it
came out. After 35 years I can play and sing this tune in my sleep.
BillWho?’s version…unlike my “bash the shit
out of your acoustic guitar for peace” style…was much,
much closer to the original. Again…with lyrics like “Battle
lines bein’ drawn. Nobody’s right when everybody’s
wrong. “ and “Paranoia strikes deep…into you
heart it will creep. It starts when you’re always afraid.
Step out of line, the men come and take you away.” how could
I question musical styles?
Joseph J. Lorenzo’s reading of Eric Bogosian’s “The
Artist” took me…and most of the folks around me…back
to … uh… now?… uh… the future? What a
strange, strange feeling. I’ve remarked on various occasions
on the talent of Lorenzo, and his stoned out hippie diatribe not
only impressed me, but as weird as the hazy logic was meant to
be…somehow it made an uneasy sense of timelessness. At the
intermission, the guy sitting next to me matter of factly said,
“You can tell that guy’s been stoned.” To which
I replied, “I can tell most of the audience has been stoned.”
I then remarked that the only aspect of Lorenzo’s performance
that wasn’t strictly correct was that in the course of his
pontificating he would have had to relight his joint several times.
(I work in a library. This is NOT the voice of experience! I read
this in a trade magazine for match companies. It was an article
called “Marijuana Cigarettes Big Boon For Ohio Blue Tip
Match Corporation”)
The second half of the show was more light hearted. Three vignettes
that are a favorite at Shadowbox called “Jason’s Scary
Stories” were sandwiched between one-act plays. In the “Scary
Stories” Jason…played by funny guy Jimmy Mak…puts
a lighted flashlight under his face and tells ridiculously un-scary
stories as if they were terrifying. All the while friend Jeremy
pantomimes the story as it’s being told. David Whitehouse
plays Jeremy and is not only delightfully goofy but is quite nimble,
taking prate falls and flopping around with a dead-on take of
slapstick. I loved this! After spending 4 summers as a camp counselor
these two reminded me…and I’m sure a lot of the audience
who’ve been to summer camp…of camp talent shows. I
have a distinct admiration for campfire humor. Loving the Three
Stooges doesn’t hurt either. As silly as the premise was
these stories are pricelessly childlike and very, very funny.
The remaining skits of the evening poked wonderful fun at a lot
of 60’s icons. “One Small Step for Tang” was
a parody of a commercial for Tang breakfast drink. The commercial
really did exist. But the debunking of astronauts being exclusively
“heroes” was hilarious…and true. In “The
Dinah Shore Show” Dinah…played glibly by Katy Psenicka…hosts
a couple famous duos of the time…Simon and Garfunkel along
with Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper. Stephan Crawford stood out
in his portrayal of second banana Garfunkel admitting that he
really hadn’t penned any of the big hits but he was writing
a song for the two of them about “a white man with an Afro”.
And in “American Top 40 – 60’s Flashback”
host Casey Kasem…again brilliantly imitated by Jimmy Mak…hosted
several “stars” including Keith Richards…who
was wheeled out on a dolly…Peanut M & M (and his mother)
and a hilarious dance routine with Jennifer Blowpez and her Fly
Girls. How Pam Callahan had the strength to sing, dance and shake
that enormous ass prosthetic is beyond me!
Great songs form the era were peppered throughout the entire evening.
Carrie Lynn McDonald (our server) gave an impressive voicing of
Led Zeppelin’s “Ramble On”. And granted…there
was a lot of “sharing the harmonies” and “passing
around” the high notes for “Suite Judy Blue Eyes”.
Yet the band played a more than respectable version. Hey…the
last time I saw Crosby, Still and Nash they had obvious difficulty
singing their own tune. Actually, all the music was good…but
at the end it was Mary Randle’s torrid, roadhouse rendition
of “Crossroads” that still rings in my ears. After
the show I looked her up, shook her hand and told her she was
great and that at the ripe old age of 15 I had seen Cream perform
“Crossroads” She and BillWho? brought that memory
back to my head.
And so…again I give Shadowbox a glowing review. I can’t
seem to help myself. And this show…being what it was…and
the times we’re in…and the times I grew up…the
times I carried a draft card in my wallet…it all hit a nerve.
A nerve I wish didn’t have to be exposed again in the context
of yet another immoral and unjust war justified by some overblown
ideological propagandizing. But to laugh and cry…be silly
and poignant…I genuinely appreciate what Shadowbox Cabaret
does…and does well. I’m entertained by Shadowbox.
I’m inspired by Shadowbox. And while I’m driving home
I actually feel like I might be living in a REAL CITY!Peace and
love to all.
Peace, Love and Shadowbox is currently staged Wednesday through
Saturday nights at Easton Towne Center (yuch!) until June 7th.
For more information
see: www.shadowboxcabaret.com
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IIssue
12 ~ April
2003..............................