THEATER REVIEW
“It’s a Wonderful Laugh!”
Grade: C-
Through Dec. 20. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays; 8 and 10:30 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays. $15-$25. The Hertz Stage at the Alliance Theatre (Woodruff Arts Center), 1280 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. 404-733-5000, www.alliancetheatre.org.
Bottom line: Humbug.
Fans of filmmaker Frank Capra’s beloved yuletide classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” could be more insulted than they are amused by “It’s a Wonderful Laugh!” Based on the opening-night performance alone, that went for fans of J.M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan,” as well.
The improvisational comedy is written and directed by Dad’s Garage head honcho Kevin Gillese, who brings the troupe’s lowbrow brand of nothing-is-sacred nonsense to the ordinarily upstanding Alliance Theatre’s Hertz Stage — with rather embarrassing results.
If you’re familiar with Dad’s earlier holiday production, the annual “Invasion: Christmas Carol,” then you know the gist of how “It’s a Wonderful Laugh!” is meant to work. It spoofs Capra’s 1946 movie by throwing an iconic but totally incongruous other character into the mix, voted on by the audience. In theory, at least, because that “invader” changes with every performance, the show is never exactly the same twice.
To give Gillese and company the benefit of the doubt, had Dracula prevailed over Peter Pan in the opening-night poll, who’s to say it may not have been a wonderful laugh-riot? For my purposes, though, I can only review what I actually saw, which featured longtime Dad’s improviser Lucky Yates as the famous boy from Neverland who doesn’t want to grow up.
A little of Yates’ manic antics go a long way, but the bigger problem here was that, even on its own loose terms, the show seemed to be cheating in a sense and not playing fair. Yates wasn’t doing Peter Pan so much as some kind of cross between a prissy Pee-wee Herman and a foul-mouthed, ax-wielding, gun-toting comic-book action hero.
Apart from the whole “invader” gimmick, “It’s a Wonderful Life” certainly isn’t above or beyond sendup, no matter how great or highly regarded it is. Still, as a basic parody, Gillese’s haphazard treatment is prone to the tasteless: Our admirable hero, George Bailey, and his guardian angel, Clarence, hurl obscenities; the scatterbrained Uncle Billy is now a campy cross-dresser; there are bits about dog poop, and Nazis, too.
Except for actress Karen Cassady (whose Clarence is a real hoot), the fine Dan Triandiflou might be the sole reason to recommend the show as George, the idealistic small-town dreamer who falls on hard times one Christmas Eve and wishes he’d never been born. Not the least of the actor’s sharp comedic skills is a pitch-perfect James Stewart impression.
You’d think other co-stars from the movie, like Lionel Barrymore or Gloria Grahame, would be similarly ripe for imitation, but Matt Horgan (as dastardly Mr. Potter) and Jackie Barbour (as flirtatious Violet Bick) don’t even try. Perry Frost and Ed Morgan complete the cast.
Presumably due to the “invasion” by Peter Pan, there was a lot of talk in the opening-night performance about the power of cultivating imagination and the magic of theater, about creative inspiration and artistic expression — none of which was in very bountiful supply during the show itself.
Just because you might not expect anything less raucous or unwieldy from Dad’s Garage doesn’t mean you wouldn’t hope for something better or more legitimate coming from the Alliance.
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