Listen up.
The Chicago Mammals are ready to freak your brain out. They are born and bred to blow your shit out of your ass and do things on stage that will make your peehole pucker up. You'll wonder why they haven't taken over the Chicago storefront scene. But then you realize...THEY HAVE.
ALL GIRL MOBY DICK. Let's talk about that title. Pure brilliance, because it makes you get your ass into the theater. But this isn't some lame burlesque show based on Frogger. This is a troupe of women who can act their asses off. You forget that they are girls, and just get into their characters, who happen to be dudes. Doesn't matter.
But let's be honest. If this was a show called MOBY DICK, and just had a bunch of dudes in it I would have never ever ever seen it and just stayed home and watched Captain America again, because that movie rules.
Erin Orr as Ishmael lures you in with her tortured monologues. Christy Arington as Stubb is the dirtiest, scariest scalywag this side of The Corsican Brothers. But then there's Amy FUCKING Harmon as Ahab. This is a tour de force performance. Her maniacal pursuit of the white whale infects everything she touches with madness. She destroys the stage.
John Wilson's minimal design uses every inch of the Mammals Zoo Studios and it is gorgeous and totally cray cray. Bob Fisher's direction is raw and dangerous, and Fisher and Sara Gorsky's script is cut to the bone and gets to the heart of Melville's tale of tragic hubris.
Plus, Christopher Cross' "Sailing" appears on the pre-show soundtrack.
And guess what? Here's the exclusive news: THEY ARE ADDING SHOWS.
These are the remaining dates:
Friday and Saturday May 18th and 19th
Friday and Saturday May 25th and 26th
Friday and Saturday June 1st and 2nd
Friday and Saturday June 8th and 9th
All performances are at 8pm – BYOB
Zoo Studios 4001 N. Ravenswood Ave Ste 205 Chicago, IL 60613
If you don't see this show, then you are a real jerk. Don't be a jerk!
See some original theater! Stop wasting your life!
All Girl Moby Dick - A (for ALL HOT ASS GREAT ACTOR GIRLS)
-Eric Roach, Anderson Lawfer
Gentlemen,
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to throw in my own endorsement, both for your taste and for the play in question. This is a flat out great piece of theater.
I do, however, have a bone to pick with you regarding your advertising techniques. Don’t be a jerk? C’mon guys, most theater folk I know are long passed having any concern regarding their inherent jerkiness. I myself am a long time reader of Review You Can Iews yet have taken the time to contribute on only one other occasion. Think of all the worthy topics that have been featured on this blog and what did I do? I implied (quite jerkily) that my dear friend (and long time subject of bromantic fetishisation on this blog) Rob Mclean was somehow past his prime. The same could easily be said of me, what reason had I to say so about Bizzaro Dorian Gray? Bizzaro Dorian Gray is not one of Mr. Mclean’s approved monikers. I just can’t help but imagine that as time clumsily chisels away at his features like a Renaissance sculptor finally succumbing to syphilis, safely tucked away between shoeboxes crammed full of fastidiously painted miniature orcs, there’s a Trapper Keeper gently embracing a tattered headshot of his from 1994, a lonely image of a youth that was, forever preserved…
But I digress. All Girl Moby Dick is great! We went last weekend and the experience cut right to the main nerve of what it means to me to make theater in Chicago. This is real crazed ambition. The performances are wonderful and the adaptation, rather than trying to tame the book into a slick narrative, follows it to all sorts of unexpected places. What’s it like being trapped on a boat with a monomaniacal lunatic? Probably just slightly more terrifying and exhilarating than it is being trapped in a tiny theater with one.
Recharge your batteries and go see this thing. Sell it out and make them extend again. Unless, of course, they’re too dainty to keep up with such a taxing schedule. After all, it’s just a bunch of girls (am I right Fellas?).
Note to the producers: preshow Christopher Cross is awesome, but so many times? The climactic rendition of Row, Row, Row Your Boat from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier is currently available as a free download. Just a suggestion.