theater review – The Proverbial Loons.
The Proverbial Loons are a phenomenon. Performing at New York’s Castillo Theatre complex at 543 West 42nd St., this amazing comedy improv troupe puts on what must be among today’s most delightful and astonishing performances in a city that offers the world’s theatrical best.
David Nackman, John B. Opdycke, Andy Parker, Marian Rich, and Cathy Rose Salit with Frank Spitznagel on piano, create a new Broadway-style song-and-dance musical in each performance, based on the lives of audience volunteers. Let me emphasize that this is not some hastily thrown together pastiche of stock bits. It’s a show that’s tight, perfectly timed, high energy, very funny and which seems to be the result of weeks of rehearsal. I have no idea how they manage this; perhaps it’s magic, but the results have audiences falling off their chairs with laughter and raising the roof with applause.
The performance begins with the selection of two volunteers to come up on stage for a 10-minute chat about who they are and their hopes, fears, talents and ambitions. The volunteers are then sent back to their seats and, with no hesitation at all, the show begins. A cynic might suspect that the volunteers are plants. How else can a fully formed musical comedy about them with a high degree of specificity suddenly take form? Well, I can personally testify they are not plants because at the performance we reviewed, one of those volunteers was Out In Jersey writer Billy George, who accompanied me to the performance! The other volunteer was a woman named Ruth, so the evening’s production was “The Billy & Ruth Show.” Judging by the reaction of Ruth’s friends in the audience, the performance captured her essence as well as it did that of our Billy.
The entire evening was an absolute delight and the comfortable, newly renovated Castillo Theatre was the perfect venue. Future performances are scheduled for June 11, 17 and 18, and Aug. 6, 12, 13, 19 and 20. Follow the Loons on Facebook by searching for “The Proverbial Loons.”
Check the Castillo Theater Web site for their schedule of many other innovative and wonderful productions at www.castillo.org.
theater review – The Proverbial Loons.
The Proverbial Loons are a phenomenon. Performing at New York’s Castillo Theatre complex at 543 West 42nd St., this amazing comedy improv troupe puts on what must be among today’s most delightful and astonishing performances in a city that offers the world’s theatrical best.
