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A CurtainUp Berkshires Review
The Capitol Steps
By Elyse Sommer
The Capitol Steps' continues to turn the foibles of politicians world wide into fodder for their comedy franchise. Abandoning their own DC careers Capitol Steppers Elaina Newport and Bill Strauss have turned their little parody venture into a big deal-- a franchises with a sizeable corps of performers to handle the fast delivery and persona changes here there and everywhere —as well sell the Capitol Steps recordings at the end of each show. They've now passed their 30th birthday and made evenmore CDs. Curtainup has reviewed various permutations Off-Broadway and in recent years at the Cranwell Resort in Lenox.
No matter who they poke fun at with crazy wigs and instantly familiar show tunes sung to Step-style lyrics, the set-up is pretty much the same, inevitably ending with one of the five people on stage summing things up with "Lirty Dies," a Pig Latin routine for grownups invented by Newport and Strauss, and an encore in which the entire cast does a run-through of a highlight from their earliest and latest edition.
Until this year the Cranwell songstick cast featured a mix of one or two familiar faces and some new-to-me performers. This year I didn't recognize a single member of the troupe. There was even a new pianist to man the keyboard and laugh appreciatively at all the jokes as if he'd never heard them before. This being a year with not only a presidential election contest, but problems galore serious enough to make this kind of daffy humor a much needed relief from nail-biting, tooth clenching despair over the anti-everything Congress, the trouble and hostility beset world. Maybe it's all too awful for even the every ready with a rhyme Steppers to have done it with their usual sharp, edgy wit. But the predictability and lack of fresh ideas that has infected oor leaders seems to have rubbed off on Capitol Steps 2012.
Naturally 90-minutes of non-stop funny business accompanied by speedy wig and costume switches on a handkerchief sized stage is always going to have its slow spots and the Capitol Steps have their fans who'll laugh themselves silly even if the jokes are more silly than scintillating
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.
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Capital Steps Cranwell Resort, Lenox, MA 413-881-16 Corey Harris, Jack Rowles, Tracey Stephens, Mike Thornton, Delores King Williams; and pianist Marc Irwin on the keyboard. From July 2 to September 3, 2012 Shows nightly at 8pm except Tuesday, plus this year, a Sunday Matinee 90 minutes without an inermission Reviewed by Elyse Sommer on July 19th |
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Slings & Arrows- view 1st episode free
Slings & Arrows- view 1st episode free
