Catch SLY FOX before it's gone!

[jmnpublications]

Posted: 8/26/04 at 6:06pm

I saw SLY FOX at yesterday's matinee, and it's a darn shame that this show is closing. This new cast deserves an audience and a chance to grease its wheels. Just 10 performances into its run and this rearranged group of lunatics has already developed a stronger ensemble chemistry than the original cast ever had.

Much of the improvement can be attributed to Bronson Pinchot's outstanding performance as the new Simon Able. He interacts fluidly with every member of the cast and brings a puckish energy to the proceedings that was missing with Eric Stoltz in the role. Rachel York is also a significant improvement upon Elizabeth Berkley's original Mrs. Truckle. She personifies her character's first name - Simplicity - by offering blankly innocent stares in response to much of what is going on around her. She also mines the comedy inherent in that simplicity to great understated effect.

All the actors, old and new, interact with and relate to one another in an effortless display of perfectly timed comic repartee and slapstick. In fact, their chemistry is so good that they actually broke each other up a few times, to the audience's great delight. While the original production often had cast members reciting lines as fast as they could in order to pick up a lagging pace, this new edition has the actors responding in a natural rhythm that enables rather than forces the humor. Richard Kind, Carol Kane, Jason Kravits, and Larry Storch are all real pros who deliver the goods. There's a great family feel to this cast. It's really too bad the show is closing on Sunday.

I urge anyone who is looking for lots of broad laughs to catch this band of comic geniuses before its too late. The audience yesterday afternoon, which was perhaps 60-70 percent full, LOVED every minute of the cast's vaudeville antics. Every principal actor got a rousing round of applause at his or her first appearance. In turn, each one seemed to deliver his or her first line directly to the audience as if to say, "Thank you." It was really touching.

SLY FOX may not be high art, but it's lots of fun. Help it go out with a bang, not a whimper. This cast deserves a strong send off.

lc

[Tiny-Toon]

Posted: 8/26/04 at 6:31pm

I LOVED Sly Fox when i saw it 4 days ago. It's a great funny show, and it shouldn't close!