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Archive: September, 2012
Every year, there's hundreds and hundreds of performances at the Philly Fringe and Live Arts Festival, and unless it's one of the big shows, it's sometimes hard to tell what you're going to get. Here at Critical Mass we're sending writers to as many shows as we possibly can for 75 pocket-sized reviews over the course of the fest. Check back in with us at On The Fringe every day for real talk on what these things actually are!
SHOW: Return Return Departure
GROUP: Nichole Canuso Dance Company
GENRE: Dance
ATTENDED: Wed., Sept. 5, 6:30 p.m.
CLOSES: Fri., Sept. 21
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: NCDC returns to the Philly Fringe festival with a genre-bending work that explores the complexity of our basic human quests. Commissioned by the APS Museum, NCDC creates a series of duets and corresponding video, in conjunction with the museum’s exhibition Tempus Fugit: Time Flies.
WE THINK: As a start to an evening (it's short, early and central enough that you can easily fit another, meatier show in the same night) or to the whole festival, there could hardly be a gentler, warmer welcome than NCDC's performance at the American Philosophical Society. Beginning with a small personal ritual (each audience member carries a rock and a flower from the APS gallery to the garden across the street) and concluding, sublimely and humbly, with tolling of the hour from a nearby bell tower, it's a thoughtful, multi-layered meditation on time, documentation and impermanence (that will itself, by design, evolve over the course of its run). But, equally, it's an opportunity just to sit in the grass for a moment and watch two elegant bodies in playful, graceful motion.
—K. Ross Hoffman
Every year, there's hundreds and hundreds of performances at the Philly Fringe and Live Arts Festival, and unless it's one of the big shows, it's sometimes hard to tell what you're going to get. Here at Critical Mass we're sending writers to as many shows as we possibly can for 75 pocket-sized reviews over the course of the fest. Check back in with us at On The Fringe every day for real talk on what these things actually are!
SHOW: Jeff Coon and Ben Dibble Must Die
GROUP: Los Jarochos
GENRE: Theater
ATTENDED: Wed., Sept. 5, 8:30 p.m.
CLOSES: Mon., Sept. 10
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: A tale of murder, revenge and musical theater. Join the bloodthirsty quest of Greg and Mike, two actors hungry for fame and fortune in a mid-level regional market. With the help of Bechtel, psychotic theater buff and freelance assassin, they’ll either take over Philadelphia theater or die trying.
WE THINK: The title's in-joke alone makes this a must-see for those familiar with the Philadelphia theater scene, and it doesn't disappoint when dishing up affectionate satire. Roommate actors Michael Doherty and Greg Nix audition fruitlessly in a town ruled by Coon and Dibble, then enlist an assassin (Alex Bechtel) to eliminate the competition. Amy Dugas Brown's clever production falters in self-indulgence, particularly in an extended dream sequence and a long training montage, but the brilliant silliness — climaxing in an all-too-possible Walnut Street Theatre musical version of Rain Man — makes this Rosencrantz and Guildenstern tale soar.
Every year, there's hundred and hundred of performances at the Philly Fringe and Live Arts Festival, and unless it's one of the big shows, it's sometimes hard to tell what you're going to get. Critical Mass, therefore, is sending writers to as many shows as we possibly can for 75 pocket-sized reviews over the course of the fest. Check in every day!
SHOW: BARBIE BLENDED: A Pop Rockin' Musical
GROUP: Theatre Underground
GENRE: Theater
ATTENDED: Sat., Sept 1, 2 p.m.
CLOSES: Sun., Sept. 9
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: Sophie wants to be a rock star. Her mom wants her to be a beauty queen. Her neighbor wants her to look like Megan Fox. And Barbie wants her to become a woman. A world premiere musical that investigates the consequences of growing up in the caffeinated age of twitter, pop music, and pornography.
WE THINK: "Blending" is a common rite of passage for pre-adults, but in Beth Hyland and Haygen Brice Walker's too-new musical, it also means kids literally pulverizing their toys in a blender. The wacky dystopian notion sputters, however, in this "pop rockin'" show about hyperactive Sophie (Kat Borelli) and BF Frankie (Bryan Black) discovering sex through useless Family Life classes. Meggie Seigrist shines as Sophie's favorite Barbie, but the show it self is more loud than original (like a soon-to-be-dated 50 Shades of Grey spoof and the icky love song "I Ate His Booger") and doesn't match the performers' skills.
Beatbox Philly is a ComedySportz Fringe offering that blends improv storytelling with freestyle rap. Adapted from its original iteration in Chicago, Beatbox Philly features five of ComedySportz's fastest-rhyming improvisers, performing Fri., Sept. 13 and Sat., Sept. 14 at 10 p.m. at the Adrienne (2030 Sansom St.).
Sue Taney, Kevin Lopez, Mark Leopold, Bobbie Block and Darryl Charles will perform a long-form scene based on an audience suggestion, stopping frequently to engage each other in impromptu rap battles. The improvisers will be accompanied by guest beat-boxers, including DJ Footie Pajamas (aka Matt Lally of local sketch duo Animosity Pierre).
For years, Isaac Jordan (of 2000down.com) has been one of Philly’s staple party-rockin’ DJs. After a recent tenure in Barcelona, he moved to NYC but that doesn’t stop him from holding it down in his hometown every week. Step into the bumpin’ main room of Rumor and let loose as Jordan tears up a variety of classics and current bangers. The side-room DJ booth is held down by Matthew Macchioni (first and third Saturdays) and John G (second and fourth Saturdays).
Sat., Sept 8, 9 p.m., $10, Rumor, 1500 Sansom St., 215-988-0777, rumorphilly.com.
How great is the Great Plaza at Penn’s Landing? Good enough to hold rock crits Jim DeRogatis and Greg Kot (hosts of NPR’s Sound Opinions) a Maker’s Mark tasting and a Yo La Tengo show (the last thing on Sunday) during the second annual WHYY Connections Festival Sept. 6–9. The receptions and booze tastings are for WHYY members only but the YLT show on Sept. 8 is free and for the locals. Tell them you watch Downton Abbey and you’ll fit in just fine. And listen up for live stuff from Andrew Lipke, Charlie Gracie, The Lawsuits, Fabian Akilles and Chicago’s Maps and Atlas throughout the WHYYeekend.
LOOKOUT! TONY LUKE JR.’s GOT A KNIFE! OK, the sous vide cheesesteak king (aka The Nail) isn’t just wildly brandishing a weapon. He’s got his own signature knife made by ErgoChef with a 7” serrated blade that he’s selling in da neighborhood (Fante’s) and uptown (Kitchen Kapers) amongst other spaces.
While the worldwide Fashion’s Night Out celebrates its fourth anniversary with pretty parties hosting editors, models and designers on Sept. 6 (Joan Shepp on Walnut Street and Knit Wit on Chestnut has Philly’s bash), Sept. 11 is the start of The Philadelphia Collection’s forward-fashion events. Beginning that night at the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s Perleman Building, TPC2012 continues with events at Macy’s (with Pretty Little Liars star Janel Parrish and Philadelphia Fashion Incubator’s designers-in-residence) and Sept. 15’s Christian Siriano appearance at Le Meridien. Swellegant.
If you want Honey Boo Boo Child to endorse your product, just send her something. That’s what the guys at Philly’s Breaking Glass Pictures, Rich Wolff and Justin Cook did. Since the film distributor was releasing its first children’s DVD, After the Wizard, this week they sent a copy to the hotter-than-cornpone reality television star pronto and she just held the damned thing up. Hmmm. Wolff had an even more interesting week when you consider that he took a business lunch with colorful Funkadelic leader George Clinton and his longtime manager at Continental Old City. Clinton had a portabella cheesesteak and the funk was had by all.
View gallery
Now that the Made in America weekend is over, we can laugh about the things that did and didn’t happen.
Neither the Barnes nor the surprisingly-shut-down-for-the-holiday Rodin crumbled under the weight of the unwashed masses. Oddly enough, the masses weren’t that unwashed.
Beyonce didn’t sing with her husband. Bruce Springsteen didn’t sing with Pearl Jam.
Jay-Z and Beyonce never made it to Stephen Starr’s Barclay Prime on Friday night though they made reservations (the pair did get food served to them and their crew by Starr’s Buddakan and Morimoto on saran-covered china on Sunday in the VIP deck).
Somehow Kanye and Kim Kardashian had the headspace to go see a movie in Union Square in Manhattan then helicopter themselves respectively onstage and in the wings of Made of America.
And your city didn’t burn or blow up just because 80,000+ people ran roughshod along Art Museum Row.
Every two weeks, Critical Mass will feature one Philly love note in its collaboration with blogger Emma Fried-Cassorla of phillylovenotes.com.
LOVE NOTE RECIPIENT: "The Loop" (aka Kelly Drive running path)
I AM: An advertising copywriter and product/company namer who dabbles in broken umbrella photography and triathlons in my spare time.
MY LOVE NOTE:
Dear 8.42 miles,
Thank you for turning me into a Runner. For the quarter-mile markers that pushed me to go further until the first time I saw every single one, finishing right where I started. Rocky held his arms a bit higher for me that morning.
Thank you for the water fountains every two miles (except for that one fountain at mile four that always tastes like rust, but yes, even thank you for that one, because it's bonded me with plenty of others like me when we exchange knowing looks and shake our heads, grateful at least for the breather) and for your luscious shade on the MLK side.
Thank you for early mornings before work, knowing if I'm on schedule or running late, depending on where I pass familiar faces running in the opposite direction. Thank you for the rowers slicing through the water, and their coaches who bark feedback, some of which I tuck into my own stride. Shoulders back, Sweeney! Thank you, especially, for the crew team wearing ROYGBIV during morning practice on March 1; I was closing in on my first half-ironman and this was the first day this year that I switched my training runs to morning sessions. It was overcast and lonely, and I was happy for a rainbow.
Thank you for being an 8.42-mile respite in a busy city — an oasis from honking taxis, belching bus exhaust and drivers who don't look both ways before turning. Thank you for allowing me time alone and time to share stories with multiple running partners. Thank you for turning me into a Runner.
Love, Katie Sweeney
Have a favorite spot you'd like to submit a love note to? Contact the author at phillylovenotes@gmail.com.
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