by Matthew Green 5/5/10
In the happy and pleasant San Fernando Valley of the 1950s, life is… um, happy and pleasant. Yet, up in the skies, danger lurks. Danger that threatens the Great American Way of Life and the family unit. Danger in the form of… The Brain from Planet-X!
Among local community theater groups, Theater Artists Olympia (TAO) most likes to produce “thematically provocative materials and experimental interpretations of classics,” especially Shakespeare in the most unusual contexts, such as The Taming of the Shrew in hell).
And each year, TAO also likes to do a big, loud, colorful, goofy musical, preferably one with an exclamation point in the title. Past productions include Cannibal, The Musical! and Night of the Living Dead, The Musical! This year, it’s The Brain From Planet-X, The Musical!
“I think musical theater is absurd to begin with,” says director Josh Anderson, “so things that accentuate the absurdity appeal to me.”
Absurdity seems to work best when the actors work hard to be serious about the absurdity, and the TAO cast comes through. Among the notable performers are Heather Christopher as the perfect wife and mother, and Amy Shepard as the equally perfect daughter who doesn’t always want to be so perfect. Shepard’s energy threatens to steal the show and crash it through the theater wall (in a good way).
Then there are the aliens. Paul Purvine, Lauren O’Neill (“the Carol Burnett of Olympia”), and Matt Flores (as The Brain) are the most entertaining invaders in the universe. They deserve their own television variety hour.
But this is theater, not television, which means audience participation (beware the Feel-O-Rama!), as well as a live band, including a theramin (that sci-fi woooooOOOOOOOoooo thing). Band member Christina Collins actually learned the theramin for this production, and just watching her play makes for an added dimension to the show.
Co-authors Bruce Kimmel and David Wechter clearly enjoyed tossing in as much 1950s pop culture and Americana as they could squeeze into the show, and left room for contemporary additions too. On Friday, May 7, Kimmel and Wechter are flying up from Los Angeles to attend, and will do a talkback with the audience, so you can ask them about any references you missed.
In any case, the end is nigh – so catch The Brain by May 15, or before the aliens win. ◙
The Brain From Planet X, The Musical!, by Theater Artists Olympia, plays at the Washington Center black box theater through May 15. For more information, visit www.olytheater.com or www.washingtoncenter.org.