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Wacky = Funny Is Not Always True
(Better Lucky Than Smart)
Reviewed by Michael Bettencourt
August 19, 2010
Playwright Jonathan Kravetz is both lucky and smart to have the cast and director he does for...(full review)
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(The Punishing Blow)
Reviewed By William Coyle
August 13, 2010
In Randy Cohen’s sometimes disturbing monologue, The Punishing Blow: An Illustrated Lecture Delivered By Order of the Orange County Criminal Court, a pompous and unlikable professor named Leslie White (Seth Duerr) is inconsolably irked that an Irish judge has forced him to atone for an anti-Semitic rant following a drunken automobile accident. His sentence: to deliver a community lecture at the Orange County Public Library. Leslie must choose to speak about one figure from a list of the “100 Most Influential Jews of All Time.” (If you’re curious, Jesus is # 2 on that list and Moses comes in at # 1). Leslie picks # 82, an 18th century Sephardic bare-knuckle boxer named Daniel Mendoza, who became a tough-as-nails ethnic hero at a time when “Jew baiting” was a popular pastime on London’s streets.
Our lecturer, though, in this highly recommended production, has little intention of atoning for anything. Ascribing ulterior, mercenary or selfish motives to Mendoza’s every act (e.g., his agreement to proceed with a bout scheduled on Shabat is seen by Leslie as particularly loathsome) and positing dubious theories based on his research and “brilliant” conjecture (of course, Leslie declares, despite scant evidence, that Mendoza and his mentor were gay lovers), Leslie hijacks the judge’s well intentioned but naïve sentence and systematically contorts Mendoza’s virtues into stereotypical vices. Thus, the pugilist’s strategic thinking becomes deceit in Leslie’s description. Leslie rationalizes, fully aware of his own deficiencies: “Mendoza always discovered a justifiable motive. People do.” When Mendoza progresses from street brawls to money contests, Leslie snorts, “Does anything convey reality more powerfully than money? You know: to certain people.”
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4Track
Better Lucky Than Smart
Cabaret Cataplexy
Clybourne Park
Glimpses of the Moon
Gone Fission, or Alternative Power
How Theater Failed America
In Conflict
Little House on the Prairie -- The Musical
Pennybacker
School Night
Secrets of the Trade
TJ & Dave
The Atheist
Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind
bash
pauljohngeorgeringo
REVIEWS OF RECENTLY CLOSED SHOWS
Macbeth and The Triumph of Love
The Last Supper
The Dybbuk
Encounters (in a non-lucid state)
Julius Caesar
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