Review of City of Nutterly Love at Philadelphia Theatre Company

First published in EDGE Philadelphia

Philadelphians aren't known for taking too kindly to people from other cities picking on our hometown. (Most of our sports fans can't even stand it when someone shows up wearing a different team's jersey.) So I'm sure many local theatergoers felt a mixture of reticent excitement and anticipation when Philadelphia Theatre Company (PTC) announced City of Nutterly Love, a collaborative spoof of all things Philadelphia done in conjunction with Chicago's Second City sketch comedy troupe.

Like anthropologists in the wild, Second City writers TJ Shanoff and Ed Furman descended upon Philadelphia a few months ago for research. The group of seven performers-Second City's Katie Rich, Rachel Miller, Edgar Blackmon, and accompanist/musical director Bryan Dunn; and Comedy Sportz veterans Mary Carpenter Eoin O'Shea, and David Dritsas-loaded both barrels with snowballs and Tastykakes and took aim.

And who knew our town contained so many easy targets for humor?

The Philadelphia sports fans and their teams got slaughtered (though the Charles Barkley joke seemed too retro, especially considering Iverson only left a few years ago), and the six actors mildly skewered Mummers participants (arguing over the color of their codpieces), Comcast, and local rockers Hall n Oates. Though how did Rocky Balboa escape without mention?

One particularly funny sketch had an unimpressed tour guide ragging on the museum's snooty art collection, renaming Picasso's "Three Guitars" as "Triangles Puking on Squares," and flagging the Renoir collection as "Naked Chubby Chick Age."

Throughout, the group's sharply timed delivery and quick wit impressed. During the Mummer's sketch, the mention of a "Drexel girl's panties" got a lot of screams, to which one of the troupe quickly fired "I think that girl's here tonight), and with the exception of the lackluster songs (particularly bad: the one lambasting our love-hate relationship with Donovan McNabb), I laughed until the muscles in my face hurt.

But the laughs came cheap. The writers culled almost every other skit from the Second City archives, massaging the material with Philly references so they could play here (the museum skit could rip on any city's art collection). And while I appreciated the original take on the famed Ben Franklin impersonator's horrific origin, what's a skit about a nun with a dirty record collection got to do with Philly?

Don't get me wrong, the archived material provided most of the laughs-whether ripping on cougars chasing cub-age tail while downing "Ambien and Jaeger" bombs or a completely honest job interviewee telling a prospective employer "I just want to bone your hot secretary." But the evening's most subversive piece only managed to poke polite fun at the Larry Mendte-Alycia Lane news scandal. I expected far more insightful satire from the nation's premier comedy troupe and didn't find it at PTC.

Instead, the night consisted of shoutouts (including PBR references, though not Yuengling) at local celebs (Stephen Starr) and landmarks (Boscov's?), with two words-"Phillies" followed by "repeat"-eliciting the most hoots and hollers from the audience. The rest capitalized on the resentfulness of New York's Sixth Borough for her bigger neighbor, and some Main Line snubbing ("if you move to the city, where will you park your horse?).

If patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels, than provincialism is the mark of cheap comedy. 1812 does a much better job subverting the locals each Christmas, and none of these skits could hold a candle to the Philadelphia color infused into Patsy, Jen Childs' Shunk Street soap-boxer.

If you're never going to Chicago, see them here. At least they didn't just focus on the tourist crap.

Philadelphia Theatre Company presents City of Nutterly Love; playing at the Suzanne Roberts Theatre, 480 S. Broad St., Philadelphia. Through July 26. Tickets: $34 to $39. Information: 866-985-0420 or www.PhiladelphiaTheatreCompany.org

Review of 1812's production of Cherry Bomb

First published in Edge Philadelphia, 12-20-2008:

Possibly the least appreciated fact about human nature is how little it changes. Today, crazed and talentless contestants appear on American Idol to publicly humiliate themselves and ratings soar. 100 years ago, people loved the Cherry Sisters, a quintet appropriately, if not affectionately, known as "the Worst Act in Vaudeville."

Of course, the real question is why any of them, from William Hung to the Cherry Sisters, subject themselves to nightly humiliation. In 1812’s vaudeville entertainment Cherry Bomb: The Worst Act in Vaudeville for the Holidays, composer James Sugg and lyricist/book-writer Jen Childs’ seek an answer.

Childs cleverly uses a play-within-a-play construction to get at the heart of their story, making each of the five women-Ella (Mary Martello), Lizzie (Maureen Torsney-Weir), Addie (Megan Bellwoar), Effie (Mary McCool), and Jessie (Charlotte Ford)-characters in the musical, as well as a staged presentation of their life by Oscar Hammerstein I (Scott Greer). Each act employs a different vaudevillian style (from a burlesque and a romantic serenade to a juggling extravaganza), while the girls struggle to maintain the truth of their story against Hammerstein’s more insulting retelling.

Initially, the five sisters only needed to raise money to find a runaway brother, and decided to rent a local opera house to stage a show. A scandalous review, in which a critic compared them unfavorably to the three witches from Macbeth, caused them to sue the Des Moines Leader and brought the Cherry Sisters to the attention of Hammerstein, who needed an act to save his floundering Olympia Theatre.

After failing to win audiences with better acts, Hammerstein declares that he’s "now going to try the worst," and brings the women to New York. The city first indulges in its baser instincts - throwing enough tomatoes to raise the revenues of vegetable sellers outside the theatre - before embracing the women and featuring them in the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

But while this show has a heart (and Childs shows a real sympathy and affection for the sisters), 100 years ago, human nature was clearly on display. Even after seven seasons of American Idol, it’s hard to imagine that any act could inspire enough hatred that would make one spectator viciously unload the contents of a fire extinguisher onto one of the sister’s faces (actually happened, though not portrayed in this show). So, Childs’ ends the show by convincing us, that yes, they were this terrible, by staging the girls’ actual act as a finale of horrible singing, terrible acting, and a ludicrous tableau vivant of Jessie hanging from a cross to reenact Christ’s crucifixion.

But while the Cherry’s may have possessed no talent at all, 1812 rounded up some of the best that Philadelphia could offer for this world premiere. Sugg’s music, set mostly to piano, violin, and clarinet, provides dexterity to match the varying vaudeville styles, from engaging melodies and a tender ballad ("Let Love In") to a magnificent seven-part act one curtain number ("Good, What is Good"). Though with a few duller moments (the marriage proposal song), Childs’ book zings through the Cherry’s story with zest and verve, and her "trial scene" includes lawyerly riddles and jokes that remind of Alice in Wonderland.

The immensely talented Dave Jadico (as the stagehand Edgar Sayres) deepens the humor with his pantomimes, sings charmingly, and even balances a washtub on his face, while Greer’s boisterous personality and booming voice finds a perfect outlet in his impresario role as Hammerstein. All five of the women show a marvelous mastery of their gifts, managing to mangle their talents when directly portraying the Cherry Sisters, later singing wonderfully (Martello), or engaging with their lovelorn expressions (Bellwoar).

"Cherry Bomb" entertains, but rather than an explosion of over-the-top humor, it’s on a par with the style of self-indulgent, low-key humor that this company has put out over the years. Undoubtedly, 1812 has provided some of the most successful original comedy in Philadelphia, achieving tremendous success with their blisteringly funny "This is the Week that Is" specials, but it’s a winking humor, getting laughs while implying "look what you’re letting us get away with in Philadelphia."

Moreover, I didn’t leave the theatre feeling that the show gave me any greater understanding of why anyone would subject themselves to such public humiliation, and this might be the only goal that Childs’ didn’t attain. However, to their great credit, Childs’ story and Sugg’s music showed what the entertainment world lost when vaudeville gave way to musical comedy.

And their show managed this without schmaltz, without derision, and with warmth, including the most tender moment I’ve seen on stage in a very long time. Here, Ford’s endearing rendition of "I am a Cherry" proves that whatever else defines human nature, the definition must include the kind of heartfelt devotion that her artistry shows is possible.

1812 Productions presents the world premiere of Cherry Bomb, an original vaudeville by composer James Sugg, lyrics by Jen Childs. At Plays and Players Theatre, 1714 Delancey Street Philadelphia. Tickets and more information available at www.1812productions.org/