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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: No Rest for the Wicked
GROUP: REV Theatre Company
GENRE: Cabaret
ATTENDED: Thu., Sept. 20, 8 p.m.
CLOSES: Sat., Sept. 22
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: Sip a cocktail or two as darkness falls and lost (singing) souls appear through the mists of Laurel Hill Cemetery. All with music from Bessie Smith to the Scissor Sisters, Cab Calloway to Nirvana, among many others. Complimentary drinks at 7:15; performance at 8pm.
WE THINK: Depending on your temperament, the prospect of spending an evening in a graveyard either sounds like a ball or fills you with complete and utter dread. Let's be real, though: Free drinks plus cabaret plus cemetery ambiance equals a big win. No Rest for the Wicked is a total blast. Between climbing on top of tombstones and literally dancing on people's graves, the troupe marches through the hour-long set with blazing enthusiasm. Working from a catalog that includes familiar death-related joints like Nancy Sinatra's "Bang, Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" and Nirvana-by-way-of-Leadbelly's "Where Did You Sleep Last Night?" and lesser-known songs like "Pistol Packin' Mama" and "Send Me To The 'Lectric Chair", the performers deliver lively, rousing arrangements. Cabaret is frequently defined by its setting, and Laurel Hill Cemetery proves to be pretty damn ideal.
—Chris Brown
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: untitled feminist show
GROUP: Young Jean Lee's Theater Company
GENRE: Theater/dance
ATTENDED: Wed., Sept. 19, 9 p.m.
CLOSES: Fri. Sept. 21
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: In Young Jean Lee’s latest experiment, six charismatic stars of the downtown theater, dance, cabaret, and burlesque worlds come together to invite the audience on an exhilaratingly irreverent, nearly-wordless celebration of a fluid and limitless sense of identity.
WE THINK: Lee's "utopian feminist experience" is Bang's older, more serious sister, challenging the audience in profound ways (even the title — which isn't a title, yet is — provokes thought), yet born of the same fun spirit as Charlotte Ford's comic treatise on body image, sex and nudity. In untitled, six performers enter naked in a ritual procession, then perform a variety of dance and theater vignettes perceived through our constant awareness of their nudity. How, and why, does nudity affect us so much? From childlike games and a dance pantomiming domestic chores to Amelia Zirin-Brown's mimed offers to audience members of increasingly ridiculous sex acts , we're both confronted by their bare flesh and conditioned to ignore it. When the performers finally appear clothed for their bows, they seem unfamiliar, like they're suddenly in disguise.
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: Hot Pepper, Air Conditioner, and the Farewell Speech
GROUP: Chelfitsch
GENRE: Theater
ATTENDED: Wed., Sept. 19, 7 p.m.
CLOSES: Sat., Sept. 22
BRIEF SELF-DESCRIPTION: From acclaimed Japanese playwright-director Toshiki Okada comes this triptych of plays that capture the malaise and instability of young low-level office workers with humor and striking movement. Set within an office break room, this trio of interconnected stories is accompanied by the performers’ choreographed gestures, everyday motions that have evolved into startling physical images of emotion and thought.
WE THINK: Repetitive dialogue, movement, and music make these three plays about office society feel like musical theater. Everyday conversation, though spoken (with projected English supertitles), takes on a songlike importance, and stilted, awkward motions become like dance, insisting on expression despite the constrained office personalities and colorless business attire. Chelfitsch's young cast brings an energy and charm that bridges the culture gap with grace and humor.
Before he began working on this summer’s mega-blockbuster The Avengers, Joss Whedon demonstrated his love for comic books in more modest ways. His comic adaptations of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Serenity fleshed out characters and stories from Whedon’s beloved television shows. His run on Astonishing X-Men earned him critical acclaim and a coveted Eisner Award. But it’s the three-act webseries Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog which allowed Whedon to push his love for comic books in startlingly new directions. This musical about the lovably villainous and villainously lovelorn Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris) reverses the standard superhero formula, compelling viewers to root for the mad scientist with “a Ph.D in Horribleness.” The Rotunda will be screening the miniseries in its entirety as well as offering games, refreshments, and a raffle drawing — all for a less than horrible cause. All proceeds from the event benefit Equality Now, a Whedon-sponsored organization dedicated to ending violence and discrimination against women.
Sun., Sept. 23, 2 p.m., $8-$10, The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut St., 215-573-3234, therotunda.org.
View galleryIt’s fortunate that the Susquehanna Bank Center is an outdoor venue, otherwise Florence Welch’s booming voice would have blasted the roof off on Tuesday. Here are some pictures from the Florence and the Machine show courtesy of Reed Reish.
Punks unfamiliar with radical queer collective Gender EDGE can figure it out quick at this eardrum-pounding shouting at Turnerdome. From Baltimore comes Sexgender, tearing through the sound barrier with a noisy hardcore of which the reverberating vocals are marked by such titles as “Christs and Queers” and “The Phallus.” Hive Bent, also of Baltimore, continues the energetic aural assault with a suitable self-description: “loudness.” Fear not, locals, for Philadelphia finds representation in new act Heather Holepuncher and Gender EDGE’s own EX. by V. Of the latter, songs destroy the distinction between thrash, punk, noise, and spoken word — suitable for a night spotlighting readings in addition to the musical mayhem.
Fri., Sept. 21, 7 p.m., $5 suggested donation, Turnerdome. We can't really tell you where that is.
Old City, what gives? You’re ready for a high end crab shack (Craft & Claw, 126 Chestnut starting Sept. 20 from the desk of Max Tucker and one-time Anastassia’s chef Nick Fabian) and a pricey good old American bistro (Red Owl Tavern at Fifth and Chestnut on Oct. 4 thanks to chef Guillermo Tellez from Square 1682) but you can’t handle a steak house? Bye, Reserve.
Now that realtor/developer Michael Samschick is turning ye old Ajax Metal Company near Frankford and North Delaware into his swanky Canal Street North — complete with C&W eateries, bowling alleys and a 3,000+ seat venue booked and operated in tandem with Live Nation — what will become of the long-discussed (by me) live venue at the corner of Delaware and Spring Garden? For a minute, that corner spot at the old Egypt nightclub complex looked as if it would be the live mid-level venue that Live Nation was looking for since it split with Larry Magid and Bryan Dilworth who together kept the 2000+ person Electric Factory club for themselves. But 3,000 seats is 3,000 seats and whomever got it built first was more-than-likely going to get the Good Housekeeping Live Nation seal. Joe Grasso’s Egypt property will not be denied or ignored and folks from Rumor (Grasso’s after-hours property run by Mark Marek) are on point to open the venue as an all ages DJ-centric/live electronic/nu-rave hot spot called Soundgarden Hall (Columbus & Spring Garden) with Live Nation this Saturday. The Philadelphia City Planning Commission have their work cut out for them.
Carman's Country Kitchen on S. 11th Street is going the way of the Edsel and the 8-track come December and I couldn’t be sadder. Apparently the woman who put “the cunt into country” has a landlord who’d rather open a pizzeria in South Philly (no way!) than host a an always adventurous brunch-a-teria. Carman Luntzel is one of this city’s last great-tasting eccentrics and in 22 years we still haven’t had enough of her wonderful madness. I’ll be eating in her red pickup truck any day now just to feel the wheels beneath my chicken wings.
They said it wouldn’t last and they was wrong: saxophonist Tom Moon’s chamber jazz floating player Tuesday nights at Milkboy Philly is still hot and getting hotter with the reed man claiming that last week’s set with Masami Kuroki, quite possibly the most gifted guitarist in Philly, set a new live music standard. Moon marked his first anniversary at Milkboy on Sept. 18.
It’s not often that a restaurant can sneak under the radar in Philly. Then there’s Sotta, an as-yet un-opened Italian restaurant/café underneath the Walnut Street Bridge, just doors away from what-used-to nightlife hot spots such as the long-closed still-missed El Mariachi and the jazzy 23rd Street Café.
WHO: DJ Kash
WHAT: The ladies of Pulse Events host this '80s- and '90s-themed dance party, featuring a promised setlist of songs by many of our childhood faves — from Salt-N-Pepa (P-push it real good!) all the way up to the Spice Girls (Tell me what you want, what you really, really want!). The three guests who deck out in the best '80s and '90s gear will win prizes, so pull out your headbands and prep-roll those jeans like there's no tomorrow.
WHEN & WHERE: Sat., Sept. 22, 10 p.m., $5, Smokin' Betty's, 116 S. 11th St., 215-922-6500, facebook.com/pulseeventsbiz.
WHY: Because you're curious to see if Aqua Net can still work wonders on that modern hipster haircut of yours.
Barrelhouse literary magazine usually holds its annual conference in Washington DC, but Philly’s getting a turn this year. Saturday’s event is a full day of panels and workshops aimed at writers of poetry, fiction and nonfiction.
Among the speakers and discussion leaders: Ken Kalfus, Sarah Rose Etter, Katherine Hill, Courtney Elizabeth Mauk, Laura van den Berg, Katie Ford, Iain Haley Pollock and the editors of Painted Bride Quarterly. There’s a strong extended-family City Paper contingent, too, like: once-upon-a-time CP music critic Andrew Ervin (author of Extraordinary Renditions which I’ve heard is excellent), poet Michelle Taransky (who judged our poetry contest a couple years back and is awesome) and Elise Juska (who judged our fiction contest a few years ago, and kicks ass).
Delivering the keynote speaker is Stewart O’Nan, author of Last Night at the Lobster, The Odds and a ton of other stuff, including those Red Sox books co-written with Stephen King. Ask him why he’s wearing a frickin Pirates hat in that photo.
Sat., Sept. 22, 9 a.m., $65 ($55 for students), UArts’ Terra Hall, 211 S. Broad St. More info here.
WHO: Robotique DJs
WHAT: The recently revamped Trestle Inn hosts a far-out disco dance party every week, rockin’ a blend of classics, boogie and proto-house. This go-round features the talents of Robotique DJs, and Broadzilla, MatPat, Julian Process and Tony Modica are scheduled down the road.
WHEN & WHERE: Sat., Sept. 22, 10 p.m., free, Trestle Inn, 339 N. 11th St., thetrestleinn.com.
WHY?: You've been looking for a chance to check out the Trestle Inn's updated digs.
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