Meanwhile, popular sitcoms like I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners were cementing their place in American culture as wholesome programs (Father Knows Best, Leave It to Beaver) paved the way for a whole new genre of "family-friendly" entertainment. Starting with Crusader Rabbit, animators were gleefully developing an entirely new cast of characters from the usual suspects found in the Disney and Looney Tunes franchises. Programs like The Huckleberry Hound Show and The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends broke ground for television legends like The Flintstones, The Simpsons, and South Park while edgy and "dangerous" stand-up comedians like Lenny Bruce began to incorporate profanity into their acts.
In 1963, United Artists released It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Directed by Stanley Kramer (and featuring a boatload of beloved stars racing to find buried treasure), the movie was an instant hit. Not surprisingly, many of the people in the cast would be totally unrecognizable to Millennials.
While comic talents have come and gone during the past half century, crafting comedy has not gotten any easier. Some important changes, however, are obvious.
- Improvisation has gained a major foothold in the field of comedy.
- More and more female comics are now doing stand-up, starring in comedy series, and working in the writers' room.
- With an increasing number of minority performers appearing in comedies, audiences are becoming more accustomed to hearing about subjects that would previously have never made it to the stage (or before a camera). In other words, "feminist humor" is no longer an oxymoron.
Many humor sites can now be found on the Internet (as well as humorous videos which have gained strong followings on YouTube). Although some humor websites reek from heavy-handed "bro" culture and Millennial whining, others continue to entertain while delivering a never-ending supply of sophisticated sarcasm. One of my favorites has become McSweeneys.net, which delights with such pieces as:
- An Open Letter to Greta Gerwig About How Her Film, Lady Bird, Passed the Bechdel Test Way Too Many Times by Astrid Johnson-Krause.
- New Erotica for Feminists by Brooke Preston, Caitlin Kunkel, Carrie Wittmer, and Fiona Taylor.
- Everything You Know About Me, the Female Character You’re Falling in Love With in a Romantic Film/TV Show Written by a Man by Mary Cella.
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Over in Berkeley, CentralWorks recently debuted its 58th world premiere. Written by Patricia Milton and directed by Gary Graves, Bamboozled benefits immensely from being the product of the CentralWorks method for creating new works which includes input the actors as part of a play's gestational process.I first encountered Milton's writing when New Conservatory Theatre Center produced the world premiere of "It's Murder, Mary! (which she co-wrote with Andrew Black in 2008). Since then, I've enjoyed Reduction in Force (2011), Believers (2012), Demeter or In The Silence of Tangerine Groves (2012), ENEMIES: Foreign and Domestic (2015), and Hearts of Palm (2016). Milton recently received a commission from New Conservatory Theatre Center for Unavoidable Admissions, which she describes as being about "celebrity, infidelity, identity, and gay Republicans (although not necessarily in that order)." In describing her inspiration for Bamboozled, Milton states that:
“I write a lot about markets and economics. What we value tells us a lot about ourselves. The journey to this play began years ago, when I came across the true story of an Antiques Roadshow appraiser who defrauded the descendant of a Confederate General out of a million dollars’ worth of Civil War heirlooms. But the facts of the story weren’t what intrigued me. Instead, my attention turned to these questions: Why do some people cherish Confederate memorabilia, monuments, and that flag? How does this connect to my own granddaddy (“The Colonel”) from Tennessee? What can we discover and what will be owed if we examine the artifacts in America’s attic?”
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| Playwright Patricia Milton (Photo by: Jim Norrena) |
With costumes designed by Tammy Berlin, lighting by Gary Graves, and sound by Gregory Scharpen, Bamboozled takes place in February 2017 in the law offices of Bright & Ashworth in Collierville, Shelby County (a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee). The plot follows a pattern frequently seen in plays by Milton that feature (a) inept, entitled men, (b) intelligent, frustrated women, (c) lots of research, and (d) surprising subplots rooted in scientific technicalities. Lest anyone complain that nobody writes good roles for middle-aged women anymore, Milton has delivered a juicy tale that focuses on the wounded egos and vicious backstabbing of four calculating and strong-willed women.
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| Jeunée Simon is Abby in Bamboozled (Photo by: Jim Norrena) |
- Abby Howard (Jeunée Simon) is a young African American woman from Los Angeles who is touring the South with a show called Antiques Roadtrip. Having briefly dated Caleb (a young white man of questionable integrity), she has stopped in Shelby County, Tennessee on a genealogical quest to find documented proof that she is a descendant of General Andrew Hatchett, a notorious local figure who raped her third great grandmother (who was a house servant on his plantation in the early 1860s).
- Rochelle Ashworth (Stacy Ross) is a small-town attorney struggling to remain in practice. Her male partner, Porter Bright, is an alcoholic who has gone off on a bender, blacked out, and vomited into her briefcase. Meanwhile, Rochelle's sarcastic personality, insatiable hunger for publicity, and talent for making enemies has prevented her from joining the Downtown Business Women's Association.
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| Savannah (Chelsea Bearce) is a sharp-tongued legal professional with precious little tolerance for fools (Photo by: Jim Norrena) |
- Savannah Hill (Chelsea Bearce) is Rochelle's legal sidekick. Due to a recent fracas at a bar (and Rochelle's humiliating betrayal), Savannah's license to practice law as an attorney has been temporarily suspended and her lesbian lover, Delia (a former grade-school teacher), has become unemployable. While Rochelle can be quite aggressive in court, Savannah is the real brains of the operation. A preacher's daughter, Savannah has a low threshold for bullshit, especially from Rochelle. As she tells Abby: "Don't count on Lady Justice being blindfolded by your moist panties."
- Opal Anne Hatchett (Susan Jackson) is Rochelle's arch-enemy -- a condescending Daughter of the Confederacy who may be blonde, dress well, and wallow in the kind of nostalgia that denies the South's loss in the "War of Northern Aggression." However, beneath her prim and proper demeanor can be found the empathy-free prejudices of a Yankee-hating viper. Although Opal Anne comes across as a privileged matriarch who has had life handed to her on a silver platter (and enjoys hosting Civil War re-enactments on her estate), she ultimately lacks the kind of intelligence shared by Rochelle and Savannah. Her Shakespearean flaw (other than the fact that she's a bible-bashing hypocrite)? She would never sue anyone who was kin. The very model of a Southern racist "country club Republican" and Trump voter, she is also Caleb's aunt. Opal Anne lovingly describes her nephew (whom she claims was raised out west in "the Land of Fruits and Nuts") as being "three pickles shy of a jar."
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| Susan Jackson as Opal Anne in Bamboozled (Photo by: Jim Norrena) |
As the play begins, Abby has been accused of stealing the family heirlooms that Caleb showed her. Upon arriving for her first meeting with legal counsel, she discovers that Rochelle has taken over her case from the indisposed Porter, Savannah (who is not allowed to give any legal advice) is giving her the stink-eye, and Opal Anne is suing her for a million dollars for stealing her family Bible. As the playwright explains:
"As a nation, we still haven't really dealt with the Civil War and the trauma of slavery. Justice has never been served. Instead, our past remains present in our racist socioeconomic and justice systems. It's something people want to move on from, but I don't know if we can without examining that legacy more than we have so far. One of the things the play tries to do is poke some fun at people eagerly stereotyping others.
In Bamboozled, past and present are deeply connected. What you think is going on at the beginning might turn out to be quite different. Four women, hailing from North, mid-South, and West, have different notions of 'justice' and what a happy ending would look like for them. The resentment and suffering of the Civil War still smolders in people’s hearts, and the deep and painful trauma of four million enslaved people lingers."
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| Stacy Ross (Rochelle) and Chelsea Bearce (Savannah) in a scene from Bamboozled (Photo by: Jim Norrena) |
While Milton's characters are well-matched, there is no shortage of race-based plot twists, bitchy insults, cunning linguistics, and reasons for retribution. The four actors form a tight ensemble with top honors going to Chelsea Bearce for her impassioned portrayal of Savannah and Susan Jackson for her beautifully layered characterization of a powerful blonde businesswoman who, preferring to put her faith in fashion and Jesus, opts to act in pro se despite her limited understanding of the law.
There are plenty of good laughs to be found in Bamboozled, which strikes me as one of Milton's best plays to date. Performances continue through March 18 at the Berkeley City Club (click here for tickets).
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No stranger to writing comedies, John Fisher's latest opus has just received its world premiere from Theatre Rhinoceros. Billed as "a story about gender and sexuality in the world of geopolitics that stars a drag queen, a Russian President, and an American President," Transitions plays out on a skeletal unit set which can become anything from a gay bar to the White House while framing a tense moment as Melania Trump tries to coax her panicking husband out of the bathroom to a scene in which Lyudmila Putin convinces her husband that the best way to come out victorious in a cultural exchange is to insist that an American drag queen join him in singing Russia's most famous romantic song: "Dark Eyes." As they say in relationship surveys: "It's complicated." |
| John Fisher (Vladimir Putin) and Charles Peoples III (Ruby) in a scene from Transitions (Photo by: David Wilson) |
This being a Fisher play, it should surprise no one that Transitions is filled with complications, contradictions, and conspiracies. In fact, the only thing missing are some contrails. But hark, isn't that a nuclear missile headed for San Francisco? And what's all the kerfuffle about Trump's son with "special needs" (Barron with two "r's" to his name) being kidnapped by a mysterious villain and the world coming within a hair's breadth of global thermonuclear warfare?
The way to stage a half-thriller, half-farce in which rival world leaders (who are total dickheads) try to win a planetary pissing contest is to manipulate the audience to the point where they will eagerly embrace a total suspension of disbelief (Fisher's forte). As the playwright explains:
“I wrote this play in 2017. In January of 2018, when I was in Hawaii, I received a push notification telling me of an incoming ballistic missile attack. For 40 minutes I was convinced that my husband, myself, and the world were going to end. Then it was over and we were all told to ‘go ahead with our previously planned holiday weekend. Aloha.’ The scariest thing about it was that it all made sense: North Korea, Hawaii as a target, our President. My whole life, I've been afraid of this very thing and now I’ve lived through it -- 40 terrifying minutes waiting for the missiles to strike.”
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| Katie Rubin (Melania) and John Fisher (Donald Trump discuss the news in a scene from Transitions (Photo by: David Wilson) |
“It worse than sucked. It was a feeling in my flesh, in my bones, in my spine like none I’ve ever felt. It was not only the end of me, but the end of my species (of that I was convinced). I have not altered the play greatly since then. For once in my playwright life I’ve been prescient (you’ll see what I’ve added since the big event). The scare only confirmed my belief that we live in a lousy time for world peace. We all know that, but what are we doing about it? I offer this as my own wake-up call. There are things greater to fear than fear itself.”
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| Charles Peoples III as Ruby in Transitions (Photo by: David Wilson) |
Transitions begins as the Trumps are about to leave for Donald's inauguration as the 45th President of the United States. As anxious as he may be to seize the day and become the most powerful man in the world, Trump is still hoping that he'll "get lucky" with Melania. However, his wife has other ideas (once a model, always a model). Between tossing her hair, repeatedly checking herself out in a mirror, and carefully applying moisturizer to her skin as the Secret Service keeps banging on their bedroom door, Melania knows how to work every last nerve in her husband's body, warning Donald that each time he touches her skin she'll have to start all over again with the moisturizer.
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| John Fisher (Donald Trump) and Katie Rubin (Melania) in a scene from Transitions (Photo by: David Wilson) |
Following the inauguration, Melania struggles to cope with a closeted young Republican who got a job in the White House because his father is a big donor to the Republican party. When tasked with finding someone (or something) that the United States can send to Russia on a cultural exchange program, Ezekial (Morgan Lange) gets drunk and falls in love with a drag queen named Ruby (Charles Peoples III). Other than being rich and reasonably good-looking, Ezekial is such an incompetent boob that he makes Jared Kushner seem like an efficiency expert.
On the other side of the world, Vladimir Putin is having a hissy fit because, after all the money he poured into getting Trump elected, the new President of the United States has chosen to go off script and improvise (as if he were still on his reality television show). During a rare meeting with her estranged husband, Lyudmila zeroes in on all of Vlad's insecurities, chastising him for never being able to act spontaneously and prodding him to do something that will take the Americans completely by surprise.
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| Katie Rubin as Lyudmila Putin in a scene from Transitions (Photo by: David Wilson) |
When things start to go wrong (and how could they not?), an international crisis of epic proportions starts to develop. Because the two Presidents are not the kind of men to back down from a confrontation, it looks as if their macho stupidity will make the Doomsday Clock reach its final goal. Until -- as always -- a drag queen saves the day.
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| Charles Peoples III (Ruby) and Morgan Lange (Ezekial) in a scene from Transitions (Photo by: David Wilson) |
With costumes by David Draper, lighting by Sean Keehan, and scenic design by Gilbert Johnson, Fisher has directed Transitions as a barking mad thriller sprinkled with easy laughs. Having shaved his head to look more like Putin, he doubles as Trump (with the help of a tacky orange hairpiece and prosthetic jowls). While Charles Peoples III and Morgan Lange score strongly as Ruby and Ezekial, Fisher's play ends up being surprisingly sympathetic to Melania Trump and Lyudmila Putin (who are both portrayed with gusto by Katie Rubin). Gabriel A. Ross doubles as Toray and Boris (the men who carry the nuclear launch codes for each President), while Kathryn L. Wood appears as the mysterious DaLanka.
Performances of Transitions continue through March 17 at the Gateway Theatre (click here for tickets). Here's the trailer:
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