Alliance Theatre Reviewers Blog

The Second City Review - Daniel Glenn

As a 90s transplant to Atlanta, and as a suburb dweller who only occasionally tells the “I live in Atlanta” white lie, I didn’t know if I’d understand or appreciate a show based around Atlanta humor. Luckily for me, The Second City filled their show with easy targets (Jane Fonda, Clark Howard), and situational sketches which could be translated to any locale. Also luckily for me, the show is FUNNY.

 

“Peach Drop, Stop, and Roll” is a slick piece of work, dramaturgically speaking. The actors progress through a variety of scenes and sketches at a pace that is brisk but never too rapid. If they (or we) happen to need a breather, their neatly choreographed set and costume changes usually do the trick. Kudos too to Lisa McQueen, the musical director. Her work perfectly complemented what the tireless actors were doing onstage. Even the preshow source music tickled my fancy.

 

 I laughed very hard and very often, and so Susan Booth’s director note makes me feel optimistic about how much good I did for myself at this show. Furthermore, there is surely a sense of self-satisfaction which comes to the audience of a show like this; we feel good that we a) understand the jokes (see transplant anxiety above), and b) are worthy enough to be mocked.

 

I also found myself laughing at times to support the jokes that I appreciated which some others may have been uncomfortable with (an Agnes Scott joke, for one). Nothing is sacred, really, in this holiday skewering which exploits stereotypes.

 

They say imitation is the highest form of flattery. Atlanta may have some unflattering foibles on display in this show, but by making us laugh about them, The Second City has helped us to further create a sense of community. Favorite show so far.

The Second City Peach Drop Stop and Roll Review - Mizzo

Finally something I can praise! This show was fantastic! So here is the premise: Second City writers, Weitberg and Howde, come to Atlanta, interview a bunch of people, and then write a two hour script based entirely on Atlanta and her “quirks.” Six ensemble actors show up on an empty stage to perform with only a few props, and we get a chance to laugh at how they poke fun at everything they possibly can during those two hours we are at the Hertz Stage.

   More than just the script, why I was so impressed: it is hard to be a dramatic actor, but it is MUCH more difficult to be a comedic actor. Comedy has got twice as much acting involved mainly because of timing, but also because of delivery. When you don’t have that dramatic strong emotion upon which to base your character, and yet you have the responsibility to deliver your lines with the perfect inflection to produce a laugh from the audience... well now, that takes a far greater amount of skill. Clearly, these actors were skilled: all solid, all fantastic timing, all at perfect pace, and a great set of scenes with which to work. They poked fun at Clark Howard, transportation, the mayoral race, kudzu, the Colonnade, mega churches, and a plethora of other Atlanta things. Nothing was sacred.

   I am a native Atlantan and I only found one negative: if you aren’t from Atlanta, or haven’t lived here at least 20 years, some of their jokes might go over your head, but there is still enough to entertain even out of town guests.

   Go see it! It is appropriate for your older teens as well. 1-10 Scale: 10-acting, script, going home happy. PG13: adult themes, mild language, smoking, and a small bit of raunchiness.

Second City Review - Leslie McNair

It seems unnecessary for me to use my review space to tell you that The Second City Peach Drop, Stop, and Roll was quite funny.  That is stating the obvious—like, it’s dark at night.  I am a child of the seventies, and I grew up on SCTV, so although I had never seen a live production, the six-member cast met my every expectation.

Have you heard the expression, “I’d rather say it to your face than talk behind your back?”  Well, this show works because it is a group of outsiders (Second City is in Chicago, in case you really don’t know), gaining information about Atlanta, picking out the funny bits, and coming back and playing them back for us so that we can laugh at ourselves.  Can you imagine that Atlanta traffic or the shrinking Journal-Constitution would cause uproarious laughter?  

I am a bit of a nerd, so I marvel at knowledge.  So I was thoroughly impressed when, in between the laughing, I realized that some of this improvisational comedy requires the actors to memorize an incredible fact base.  In one sketch, the troupe takes us back in Atlanta through the years (given by the audience members) and each bit had to be historically accurate.  That was a highlight for me.

I say, if you like to laugh and can handle holding up the mirror while you do it, then THIS is a must-see.

Second City Drop Stop and Roll -- Caitlin Way

Irreverent.  In a word, this sums up The Second City Peach Drop Stop and Roll on the Alliance Theatre’s Hertz Stage.  Other words that come to mind: bold, off-color, inappropriate, improper, occasionally predictable…and more often than not, hilarious. 

 

I can’t write this without applauding the physical and mental agility of the performers: Randall Harr, Anthony Irons, Niki Lindgren, Amber Nash, Amy Roeder, and Steven Westdahl.  The Hertz stage is the perfect venue for a show like this.  The audience itself was sometimes as funny as the Second City troupe.  Nothing tickles me quite the same way as hearing other people laugh -- even if I’m only mildly amused myself.  And there were moments during this performance when the ridiculous statements or the hearty chortles thrown out by audience members were just as entertaining as the people on the stage.

 

There were many great things about The Second City – at the top of the list, the fearlessness with which this take-no-prisoners ensemble tackled colossal and controversial issues, tailored specifically to an Atlanta audience.  Nothing was off limits, and I mean nothing: they dove head first into race relations, gender identity, sexual preferences, and religion.  It seems inappropriate to try and make light of things that have deeply impacted, and continue to impact, so many individuals.  Yet there is something noteworthy and downright progressive, even while potentially offensive, about the way Second City faces these issues head-on with humor and intelligence.

 

Watching The Second City on the Hertz Stage felt a little like watching Saturday Night Live in high def.  The sketches are occasionally weak, more often funny, and very often laugh-til-you-cry hysterical – and even one moment spent laughing that hard, in my book, is worth 90 other moments just chuckling here and there.

 

The Second City: Peach Drop, Stop and Roll Review -- Amy Ard

After receiving approximately 4,391 robocalls in the past month telling me how Candidate X might fix all that ails the great city of Atlanta, it was cathartic sit back in the cozy Hertz Theatre and listen as my fair city got ripped up one side and down the other.  The deeper the cut, the louder I laughed.  From crappy transportation to an even crappier newspaper, The Second City: Peach Drop, Stop and Roll hit the mark time after time.

The ensemble is tight; composed of three actors from Chicago and three who have roots in Atlanta, they work together well. The show is composed of far more sketch comedy than improv, which might push the ensemble a little harder and really showcase their talent. The mix between Atlanta-specific, holiday-themed and Second City stock sketches is well balanced and gives everyone something to laugh at (even my friends from Montana and Mississippi were heard guffawing).  Last night, most scenes evoked laughter from someone in the audience, so those I thought were lackluster may be blamed on my ignorance of the place or personality being lampooned.  The better you know Atlanta, the funnier the show.

The writers deserve serious kudos for research; they obviously spent considerable time in town to find out what makes Atlanta tick.  To be sure, some cheap targets made it into the sketches: Stone Mountain, OTP vs. ITP, and the under-whelming New Year’s Eve Peach Drop are a few.  But the writers dug a lot deeper to get to the center of Atlanta culture (I use that term loosely).  If you’ve spent time at the Colonnade Restaurant (choice dining locale for gays and grays), seen the aging strippers at the Clermont Lounge and know the names of Georgia governors stretching back to the 1900s, then you’re qualified to run as mayor.  Come to think of it, any chance we can we get these guys on the runoff ballot?

Review of "A Life in the Theater" - Leslie McNair

I love to get to the theater early so that I can soak in the details of the set before the performance and imagine where the play is going to take me. As I waited for David Mamet’s “A Life in the Theatre” to begin, I noticed the obscure image of a stage—a perfect introduction.

    This play is the story of two stage actors: a relative newcomer who is coming into his own and a veteran whose prime is behind him. Over the play’s span of time, these two work on a number of productions together.  The story gets to be about both what happens between them on stage, as well as off.  But like the initial set image, neither storyline is really clear.

Andre de Shields’ portrayal of the elder thespian, Robert, is magnificent. This production marks the first time in its 32 years that the part has been played by an African-American actor, and Mr. de Shields makes the most of the moment. In the role of the younger actor, John, Ariel Shafir does a very nice job as well. Together the characters create an allegorical depiction of the life cycle of theatrical actors.

Lacking a true problem/solution-type plot, the dark play is further muddied with weird sound bytes and film clips that don’t do anything to enhance the production. So I didn’t leave the theater having ridden the plot line train over the tangles and twists of a superb storyline.  I actually left thinking about Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot”—another two-actor play that leaves a lot to the viewer’s interpretation.  I imagine that over the years, this play (like “Godot”) has been the vehicle for many actors to play up the high drama of the figurative roles while trading true character depth.

I say go see “Life” for the acting and the rare chance to observe a stage legend grace Peachtree Street.  As for the play itself, maybe you’ll get it. That will be a bonus.

A Life in the Theatre -- Caitlin Way

A Life in the Theatre

 

This production, for me, was the embodiment of what really great theatre is all about: the story was edgy and challenging, as was the casting and the direction; the actors themselves were superb; the production was well-designed, the set was simple and real; the experience was engaging and surprising. 

 

There are many details in this play that paint a mostly accurate – albeit at times exaggerated – picture of a life in the theatre.  There is also, as you would expect, a strong undercurrent of “between the lines” dialogue as we watch an older actor and a younger actor in complex interactions, both onstage and backstage.  

 

Ironically the biggest drawback in this play was the dialogue itself.  Certainly David Mamet is widely regarded as a prolific author, playwright, and director -- and in so many ways this script seems brilliant, even to an ordinary audience member like me.  At times the discourse is poignant and believable.  More often than not, however, it felt like an exploration of how many different ways the actors could deliver the word “Yes.”  The excess of one-word sentences was, at times, affecting in its own way.  But eventually this became boring, even mildly off-putting. 

 

Awkward exchanges aside, Andre De Shields and Ariel Shafir are superb.  Who knew you could act the hell out of so many one-word sentences? In De Shields, the audience is fortunate enough to witness a brilliant artist deliver his craft with vast amounts of talent.  Shafir is strong as well, and the chemistry between the two is at times palpable.  I watched in fascination as these two men played off each other.  They were funny and real, complex and absurd.  And human.

 

For me, the Alliance Theatre scored another home run, not only with the excellence of the production itself, but also with the selection of this piece for the 2009-2010 season.  I loved it.   

A Life in the Theatre Review

I wanted it to end.

No review of mine for this production would be completely honest if I did not admit that; after about sixty minutes, I was fidgeting in my seat, and with ten minutes to go I even muttered under my breath.

To be sure, had the play been longer than it was I would likely have had a few more chuckles coerced out of me by the impeccable technique of Mr. De Shields, or I would have been impressed again by some of the fine production design elements, or I might even have found a line or two of Mr. Mamet’s to pique a kind of interest (“Not hungry,” was one of the last lines to actually make me think), but ultimately I could not find these small triumphs to be worth it.

Last night was my first encounter with this play, so I am unsure how much of the faulty rhythm and incoherence can be attributed to the actors, and how much is the more permanent error of the author. It seemed little more than a string of self-indulgent semi-poetic All About Eve scenes mixed with some bizarre spoofs. While some of the “onstage” interludes were inspired in their wackiness, what’s the point? To show that a life in the theater invariably involves a lot of bad productions?

Similarly, I couldn’t invest in either of the characters – stock types, although Mr. De Shields fares much better than his Keanu Reeves-y counterpart – and so couldn’t care much about their anxieties and aspirations.

Early in the show, Mr. De Shields utters a foul word about one of his costars. It gets a laugh: mostly, I think, from shock value. In other words, it’s a cheap trick. Unfortunately, with no real emotional center, the play never gets any classier.

A Life in the Theatre review -- Amy Ard

When I was in high school I joined the drama club because I loved acting and plays and relished the opportunity to spend time outside of school in “rehearsals” with my best friends.  Those of us in the drama club shared a culture that set us apart from, say, the school chorus.

There's something powerful about feeling part of "the club" and I guess that at least half of the audience members at last night's performance consider themselves theatre insiders, card-carrying members of the drama-club-for-grownups.  Mamet's play seems to be written for, and best enjoyed by, folks who have experience with one, or both, of the characters and follies they represent.  I'd place a bet that those who laughed loudest felt the slightest twinge of self-satisfaction for getting the jokes.  I did.

But a play performed for the drama club doesn't necessarily have wide appeal.  The more subtle story line--the evolution of the relationship between a giant at the end of his career and an aspiring talent at the beginning of his--was a little muddied by the theatrics and the jokes for those "in the know."

The script won’t disappoint fans of Mamet, unless you are expecting the usual torrent of profanity.  The dialogue is crisp, smart and beautifully wielded by the talented actors.  And acting is really where this performances shines.  Whether you've spent a life in the theatre, 10 minutes backstage, or even seen a few good plays, it's easy to recognize André De Shields is truly a phenomenal actor.  In fact, his performance redeems this play for those who may not be “in the club.” De Shields and his co-star, Ariel Shafir, are fun to watch and a real delight to hear as they expertly wrestle Mamet’s script.

A Life in the Theatre tells a powerful tale about those who give their lives, sometimes to their detriment, to the craft of acting.  And with a little imagination it can speak to those of us who live life outside the theatre.

A Life in the Theatre review - Mizzo

Two actors share theater life together: John (the younger) compliments Robert (the older) in order to begin a mentor relationship. Starving for real connection, Robert pours his experience, talent, and eventually his life into John. As the relationship evolves romantically, we see theater life on stage and off: their struggles, revelations, shared victories. Robert teaches John who eagerly learns. But as Robert puts it: everything is ephemeral. The relationship slowly dies as John begins to outgrow his fading teacher. By the end Robert is an old actor who has lost everything he values most: job competency, aspirations to make a difference, real connection. John is on that same actors’ tread mill completely unaware that he could end up exactly the same and not at all sympathetic to his now “just a friend.”

A sad drama with funny moments: the alien scene was hilarious, especially when Robert threw his salad tongs like a 3 year old having a tantrum. Or when Robert wouldn’t leave the theater when John was practicing, or the many times Robert over acted when “on stage.”

Theater, like any other profession, has its ups and downs. Being an actor/director myself, I could identify with wanting: real lasting connections, acting proficiency and satisfaction, mentoring younger actors, etc. But I felt blue afterwards because the playwright showed what I know all too well about theater: lasting relationships with fellow actors are rare, eventually most actors slow down to the point of incompetency, there is virtually no dignity in growing old as an actor since the younger actors don’t understand you, and really wish you’d just move out of the way...sounds like corporate America...or just America.

1-10 Scale: 11-fantastic acting, scenery, stagehands, 7-script and statement, 3-feeling happy afterwards. PG13+ for adult themes, much profanity, smoking and homosexual actions.