Wellsir, NYGASP will be in California this weekend: The Pirates of Penzance in Cerritos. It's our 4th consecutive year at the Cerritos Center for the Arts, about 20 miles south of Los Angeles. I will be Major-Generalling again. A quick reminder:
There's got to be another picture of me in that makeup somewhere but I am not going to look for it. Anyways, it's Friday and Saturday, March 23 & 24, and here is a LINK FOR MORE INFO. Also! We will be doing our 7-person cabaret show I've Got a Little Twist on Sunday in Arroyo Grande at the Clark Center for the Performing Arts and HERE is a link for THAT. You will have to scroll down a bit. Have a look at this commercial they made for us and count the shots of me! Hurrah for the old short guy!
Chew on this. Say you are in New York. GO ON, SAY IT, and don't lie because I'll know. Say that you feel inspired to see a silly show. You don't want to pay the inflated ticket prices for The Book of Mormon, plus none are available anyway. Why didn't you see that show when it was in previews? Sucker. You probably weren't even breast-fed. Go down to the East Village - you know you want to - and see SILENCE! The Musical - "The unauthorized parody of The Silence of the Lambs." 'Unauthorized parody' means that there is no mention of Thomas Harris, Jonathan Demme, or Ted Tally anywhere in the program. It's the same legal deal Mad Magazine gets with their movie and TV parodies - or I guess they still call them 'satires.' It's playing at 9th St & 1st at the 9th Space Theatre at PS 122, a slightly renovated building with dimly lit stairways with ancient, broken banisters held together with duct tape. Even the duct tape is not in such great condition. There are also some mangy hallways to pass through. You imagine you can hear Jame Gumb's sewing machine grinding away in the building somewhere. The theater itself is fine, and courteous, normal-looking people help you find your seats and sell you... souvenirs, and... snacks...
The show is indeed "Silence of the Lambs" with gags, japes, and OK songs. Some of them are better than OK, boardering on pretty good. I like show songs short, with no irritating Gilbert and Sullivan-type unrequested encores. It's a little over 90 minutes, no intermission. Most of the cast plays multiple roles, for instance the same woman played Catherine - the girl in the well - and her mother, (Republican) Senator Martin, and sang in the chorus. Hannibal Lecter and Clarice were astounding. Clarice clowned a bit, quite a lot, really, but Lecter was absolutely laser-focused and scary and insanely funny and was played by the guy who was the nerdy neighbor Al Bundy hated on the TV sitcom "Married... With Children" (David Garrison). Jenn Harris is very rubber-faced and brave, and very bravely rubber-faced, as Clarice, doing Jodie Foster all the way through. Here she is in her... uh... remarkable wig, without which she loses about 15 years, with Garrison:
And after the show - or before, depending on your degree of lactose tolerance - why not walk 2 short blocks down to my brother's BIG GAY ICE CREAM SHOP for a big gay treat with hardly any human organs in it, and feel even happier that you are out having TWO joyous experiences! Open til 11!
You are pathologically stupid if you are a "Silence of the Lambs" fan and fail to see this. You'll hear at least as much naughty language as you would at Book of Mormon, if that's the kind of thing that motivates your reality TV ass into a theater. Cheapest seats are $25! Or you can get discounts on better seats from theatermania.com. Try to sit up front to fully enjoy the dancing of "Dream Clarice."
