Tynan's Anger

This review was originally published on Blogcritics

Vice Girl Confidential is one of those plays where if you drink the Kool-Aid of its premise, you’re in for a raucous, thoroughly entertaining, maniacally smart show. What you have to accept is that you’re witnessing pure, unadulterated spoof and nothing more.

If you want depth to your satire, look somewhere else. This film noir take on a prostitution ring is pure farce and over-the-top emotions, making absolutely no apologies for its exorbitantly high rate of clichés per second. Playwright Todd Michael, who also plays the drag role as the pseuo-classy Madame Stella Fontaine, has more fun with the play than anyone else could possibly have. How much of that fun trickles down to the audience depends purely on how jaded an audience member is.

If the best farces feature a Simpsons-like range of humor styles and approaches to storytelling, Vice Girl Confidential is a bit more like Family Guy—a one-trick pony in terms of comedy, but one that be uproariously funny for the occasional short burst. Like Family Guy, Vice Girl makes a reference and makes it for an exceedingly long period of time, daring the audience to turn away. But at the same time, even Family Guy is able to poke fun at the cultural reference points it worships. Here, Michael is too in love with the world of loose dames, hard-nosed detectives, and vicious crime lords to take a step back and give even the slightest wink to the audience.

Michael is smart enough to keep the play to an hour’s length, as there would be no way to maintain this kind of comedy for any longer. But as with Family Guy, you leave the play feeling like you’ve seen nothing really substantial and long-lasting, even if you've laughed your lungs out.

This kind of knuckles-dragging spoof, where clichés are milked for laughs until the comedic cow runs dry, feels dated. Ten to fifteen years ago, it was an approach to satire that still seemed fresh, as no one had previously had the idea of embracing the clichés that all their formal training had told them to despise. Yet it has become increasingly dominant in comedy, both on an amateur level and, increasingly, on a professional level as well. It’s more disappointing when, in the case of Vice Girl Confidential, the play’s creator seems so willfully oblivious to how unoriginal the approach actually is.

The play was a hit at the 2006 Fringe Festival, largely because of the boisterous cast. The cast remains as enthused and committed as ever, and everyone, including Michael, plays their roles with the utmost conviction. That enthusiasm is what keeps Vice Girl from disaster, and makes the play very enjoyable on a shallow level. Beyond that, however, maybe it should have stayed in Fringe’s vaults.

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Vice Girl Confidential by Todd Michael. Directed by Walter J. Hoffman. Photos by Louis Lopardi.

Starring Jeff Auer (Duke Cragie), Emily King Brown (Florence Kelton), Thom Brown (Walter Slade), Courtney Cook (Mamie Winters), Matthew F. Garner (Muggsy Regan, Edgar Baldwin), Lawrence Lesher (Lou Braddock), Zach Lombardo (Narrator, Trigger Nelson, Frazier), Jessica Luck (June Winters, Police Woman), Todd Michael (Stella Fontaine).

Vice Girl Confidential completed its run at UNDER St. Marks on November 16. It was produced by Graycie Productions.

Labels: 2008-2009, blogcritics, Family Guy, new york, simpsons, theater review, Todd Michael, under st. marks, Vice Girl Confidential

There are few things I like more than Batman and the Simpsons. One of them is Batman in the Simpsons. This fan art blog in honor of the Dark Knight has made me reconsider my entire bias towards fan art. [Springfield Punx]

Labels: batman, fan art, i'm a huge nerd, simpsons

With the weak dollar, how many peanuts could a Euro buy? [Reuters]

Labels: europe, i'm a huge nerd, money can be exchanged for goods and services, simpsons

Via EW's PopWatch blog:

Groening fans were also given two nuggets of info: First, the team has "no intention" of wrapping up The Simpsons anytime soon — certainly not as long as "the ratings keep up," added Jean, "and they have."

A few years ago this would have enraged me, but show has been on the upswing over the last couple of years. It's not the same as its golden age, but it's still great, if different.

Labels: matt groening, simpsons, television

For those of you like coming up with Steinbrenner-Mr. Burns comparisons, this Lion in Oil article should appease you.

It's not every day that a cloud gets the biggest cheers at Yankee Stadium.Fans showed their approval today when a cloud moved in front of the sun during the fifth inning of the Yankees-Royals game. They booed moments later when the sun returned.

Seriously, do Yankees fans want every plant and tree to die and to have owls deafen us with their incessant hooting? I don't know about you, but I've had it up to here with these damn rickets. ::waddles away::

[FanHouse]

Labels: mr burns, simpsons, steinbrenner, sun, yankees fans