Troupe Often Reduced to Laughs and Gaffes
Written by DCist Theater Reviewer Missy Frederick.
When doing a live show, performers inevitably have to contend with slip-ups and unforeseen circumstances. Sometimes, these mistakes can provide the opportunity for an epic recovery that outshines the original material: think of Gilbert Gottfried's masterful telling of the infamous "Aristocrats" joke after his 9-11 humor was bombing at the Friar's Club Roast of Hugh Hefner. Other actors aren't quite as quick on their feet, and flubs devolve into barely-stifled giggles, blank stares and the complete unravelling of a performance (read: any time Jimmy Fallon and Horatio Sanz appear in the same Saturday Night Live sketch.)
One would think the seasoned Reduced Shakespeare Company would easily sail through the occasional misstep. And the loose, improv-like nature of their latest effort at the Kennedy Center, All The Great Books (Abridged), certainly lends itself to casual hilarity and on-the-spot revision. Unfortunately, last night, the troupe did not seem to have their wits about them.
Struggling the most was Dominic Conti, usually a strong comic performer whose lanky build, pitch-perfect deadpan and goofy naivety all served the production well. Unfortunately, the guy couldn't stop from frequently breaking character to laugh, and at one point, completely lost his place in the act. As a result, there were about ten minutes of desperate improv from his contemporaries, finally resulting in some panicked whispers to help get the show back on track. A mess-up here or there rarely ruins a performance, but from that point forward, the three-man troupe seemed nervous and off-beat, marring the effortless feel that the production had achieved up to that point.
It's a shame, too, because there's some excellent material in All The Great Books, and when this troupe is on, they're ON. Probably most famous for their Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), the trio is performing both Great Books and The Complete History of America (Abridged) at Kennedy Center this July. And throughout much of the show, their antics had the whole audience laughing out loud. Reduced Shakespeare productions achieve a deft balance between silly physical comedy and rapid, clever wordplay, and Great Books is no exception.
Conti, who played a dim-witted student teacher assisting a crash course on literature, was aided by Reed Martin, taking on the persona of a hot-tempered P.E. teacher with an unexpected affection for Little Women, and Austin Tichenor, who was one drama-queen of an English professor (his love for Don Quixote is much more grounded in the ballads from Man of La Mancha than anything Cervantes ever wrote).
The three performers play off each other well, constantly donning new identities and costumes to whiz us through the texts of modern literature, with appealingly absurd results (Don Quixote's biggest foe? A disembodied Incredible Hulk hand). Martin is the most impressive at switching between diverse roles; Tichenor's soliloquy, when he hopelessly interweaves the words of the great poets with song lyrics ("Casey at the Bat" quickly devolves into a K.C. and the Sunshine Band reference) is a tour de force. The team is also great at involving the audience, whether it be encouraging them to hammer epic heroes with beach balls, or bringing one member onstage to play Virginia Woolf in a Women of 20th Century Literature dating game.
Though not every joke works (Carrot Top references at this point have been more than overplayed), the cast can squeeze out the humor from even the most throw-away of moments (seeing Martin take the stage, decked out with children's swimming pool toys as the god Poseidon, is a great entrance if there ever was one). On any other night, the show is probably an unqualified treat. But while we're more than happy to laugh with these folks, even when it's occasionally at a blunder, they need to always ensure that the laughing with doesn't come at the expense of laughing at their performance.
All The Great Books runs July 11-30, while The Complete History of America runs July 5-28, at the Kennedy Center. Tickets are available on the theater's Web site.