SITE GUIDE
SEARCH
REVIEWS
REVIEW ARCHIVES
ADVERTISING AT CURTAINUP
FEATURES
NEWS
Etcetera and
Short Term Listings
LISTINGS
Broadway
Off-Broadway
NYC Restaurants
BOOKS and CDs
OTHER PLACES
Berkshires
London
California
New Jersey
DC
Philadelphia
Elsewhere
QUOTES
TKTS
PLAYWRIGHTS' ALBUMS
LETTERS TO EDITOR
FILM
LINKS
MISCELLANEOUS
Free Updates
Masthead
A CurtainUp Berkshires Review
The Capitol Steps 30th Anniversary Edition
By Elyse Sommer
|
The fich and ramous are getting into trig bubble everylair you wook. And in every wine of lurk. We're the stapital Keps, so of course we tend to focus on the Pearled of Wolitics. And blieve me, there are plenty of plandals there. — A sample of the Lirty Dies routine that tops off every performance of the former DC staffers who've turned their comic sendup of Capitol Hill scandals into a successful franchise that's celebrating its 30th birthday. |
The DC staffers who quit their straight arrow careers to spoof national and international people in the limelight have also created a profitable sideline of CD's of their riffs done to the tune of instantly recognized show numbers which the performers sell at the end of each show. The group has expanded considerably over the years and the latest update of their songstick featured just one performer I've seen before, Mike Tilford. This Capitol Steps veteran is as fresh and funny as ever and brought his own style to the " Lirty Dies" finale.
Each show has a something old and something new mix of performers. Felicia Curry was the delightful something new the on board when I attended. After the anticipated arrival of a Barack Obama interpreter (Jon Bell) with a take on his Twitter Town Hall meeting, Curry bounced on stage with a bang. She didn't have to look like Sarah Palin to be memorably Palinesque. Besides doing Paiin twice, Curry was a standout whatever she did and whoever she pretended to be.
Other characters emerging from behind the Capitol Steps imprinted shade included the President's second in command, various presidential hopefuls, Supreme Court Judges Ruth Bader Ginsberg had a Ladies' Room interchange with newbie Sonia Sotomayor. Ann Johnson's funniest bit was as Nancy Pelosi. Not surprisingly, the unfortunately named (except as a comedic target) ex-representative Anthony Weiner came in for his share of ribbing. International figures like Lybia's embattled Muammar Qaddafi and Egypt's falledn Hosni Mubarak.
Naturally 90-minutes of non-stop funny business accompanied by speedy wig and costume switches, are unlikely to be non-stop hilarious. Still, while not e very skit sends the audience into gales of laughter, each of the five jokesters does get at least one big belly laugh number.
Though Cranwell is an elegant resort, and the Olmsted building is a handsome residential complex, don't expect a state-of-the-art theater. The Steps are, as they have been in past years, steps below ground level. The room set aside for their show is large but the rows of straight-backed chairs are all on one level — not an ideal for good sightlines for all viewers. It would be a good idea to arrive early enough to be as close to the handkerchief sized stage as possible.
No review of this summer's Capitol Steps edition woul be complete without a special shout-out for pianist Howard Breitbart. As his program biography states, he's not only an expert pianist but "has become particularly adept at laughing heartily at routine he has heard hundreds of times, and, even more spectacularly, not falling asleep during the spoken bits."
|
Capital Steps Cranwell Resort, Lenox, MA 413-881-1636 From July 2 to September 3, 2011 Shows nightly at 8pm except Tuesday Tickets $49 (Capital Steps participates in the Berkshires 1/2 price TIX 90 minutes without an inermission Reviewed by Elyse Sommer on July 20th |
|
REVIEW FEEDBACK Highlight one of the responses below and click "copy" or"CTRL+C"
Paste the highlighted text into the subject line (CTRL+ V): Feel free to add detailed comments in the body of the email. . .also the names and emails of any friends to whom you'd like us to forward a copy of this review. Visit Curtainup's Blog Annex For a feed to reviews and features as they are posted add http://curtainupnewlinks.blogspot.com to your reader Curtainup at Facebook . . . Curtainup at Twitter Subscribe to our FREE email updates: E-mail: esommer@curtainup.comesommer@curtainup.com put SUBSCRIBE CURTAINUP EMAIL UPDATE in the subject line and your full name and email address in the body of the message. If you can spare a minute, tell us how you came to CurtainUp and from what part of the country. |
Book of Mormon -CDOur review of the show
Slings & Arrows-the complete set
You don't have to be a Shakespeare aficionado to love all 21 episodes of this hilarious and moving Canadian TV series about a fictional Shakespeare Company
