Last night I was lucky enough to catch our iconic little ball of talent, Robbiej in the Godlight Theater Company production of Steve Martin's Picasso at the Lapin Agile, and what a fine mounting it was of this very funny work!
As with many Off Off Broadway productions you never know WHAT you are going to be handed, how many times have we gone to see "friends" (real friends wouldn't make you go!) in a six hour American translation of a Slavic playwrights agony filled drama about a hairy pickle? You know you've been there!
Knowing the work as I had seen it during it's original Off Broadway run, I was excited to see what the Godlight would do with the piece and under Joe Tantalo's sure and focused direction the evening soared!
The entire play takes place in a dive bar in Paris on a wonderful night where "the twentieh century began" and Einstein and Picasso met and shared their vision of the future. Believe me in the hands of playwright and beloved comic actor Steve Martin it is both funny and thought provoking and in the end deals with the hope that an individuals creative dream can rise up and reach and change the world.
The play wouldn't work without a strong ensemble and Tantalo has handled that task well, creating a perfect mix of actors, wonderfully matched to their roles.
Mike Roche,Paul Navarra,Flannery Foster,Lilly McDowell and David MacNiven all provide the exact level of honesty and humor and stay true to the text and the energy of the play. BRAVO!
Now I only single out the following because I know them, haha, well not all as Randy Falcon who played Picasso I don't know but since he played a wonderful quietly intense and bad boy rock star like Picasso I had to make special mention.
As Schmendiman and Sagot, both David Gurland and Brian Farley are brilliant, bringing comic fire to their characters, and those boys are sure lookers! I hear Farley has a hot brother too..ok, I digress!
Sarah Cook as Suzanne is a wonder, I saw this actress in Robbie's last show and she stood out and stuck in my head, she is the real thing, I know we'll be seeing and hearing a great deal about her in the future!
Which bring us to our own Robbiej, people not only do I feel lucky to grow close to him as a friend but being able to see him thrill onstage is a gift, he's THAT GOOD! And you don't have to be Albert Einstein to know that, he never stoops to camp, well not on stage, at North Square after maybe..haha, no, he imbodies Einstein with a demented passion about his scientific vision but an even bigger lust for life, he sees himself as just as much an artist as Picasso..maybe even more of one.
All in all a truly joyous production done with nearly no budget, a blessing in disguise as it lets the words shine throught and the entire performance flying into that starry Paris night, when Picasso met Einstein and the "world" changed forever. Go see it, but tickets are selling out so make that call!
"What a story........ everything but the bloodhounds snappin' at her rear end." -- Birdie
[http://margochanning.broadwayworld.com/]
"The Devil Be Hittin' Me" -- Whitney
Now, Anthony, we have to keep up appearances. We have an image to protect. If only we were there for Kristen in the olden days, things might have turned out very differently.
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