Review: Unitard's ABOVE THE FRUITED PLAIN at Red Eye NY Is Anything But Plain

Reacting to live onstage comedy can be a funny kind of thing – “funny” meaning “ha ha” or “odd.” One audience member’s laugh-out-loud reaction may be another’s shrug. What strikes one person as pure fun strikes another as puerile – juvenile rather than juicy. Such was the “your mileage may vary” situation among the laughers and chucklers and eye-rolling attendees during a recent performance by the sketch comedy trio known collectively as Unitard (Mike Albo, Nora Burns, and David Ilku). The performers seem feisty and fearless, self-aware, versatile, willing to be silly, satirical, and salacious, both courageous and outrageous, with mixed results. 

Following a sold-out show on April 30 at Joe’s Pub, Unitard regrouped for a performance on the stage of a little theatre space within gay bar Red Eye NY, in the shadow of the Port Authority transportation hub on West 41st Street and Ninth Avenue. And the intrepid trio will trod those boards again on June 24. Celebrating their 25th anniversary, they address the audience, do some quick costume changes (occasionally donning wigs) to portray a myriad of mad characters and recognizable types. Subject matter included red carpet celebrity interviews, a certain red-faced member of a certain political party,  a series of detailed invitations to sex parties, cannabis and a catastrophe for Humpty Dumpty who fell off the wall he was perched upon. And “off the wall” certainly characterizes much of the style. Often breezy, rarely mean-spirited, Unitard has a prominent but casual LGBTQ+ comfort zone and representation in the characters presented. (“Some of our most loyal fans are actually straight,” is one flip comment in the introductory remarks.)  There is some singing, especially at the beginning, using pre-recorded musical accompaniment. 

If you think you’d widely grin, giggle, or guffaw as the performers sing and dance to a disco ditty discussing Donald Trump, set to the tune of his own fave disco song “Y.M.C.A.” with canned music and new lyrics (“One man– he can start a war” and replacing the titular letters to spell “I-R-A-N”) or notorious prisoner Ghislaine Maxwell teaching an exercise class, chanting, “Squat, swat, get in the yacht,” or find it amusing when these actors pretend to be people perusing photos of penises on an app to discuss the respective sizes, this show is for you. 

Sharper, fully realized bits and skits with stronger characterization included: an Alcoholics Anonymous support group meeting with an oversharing member whose motivation for attending is a clever surprise; movie actors saddled with a wildly inappropriate and incompetent intimacy coordinator; and a wink at “America before woke-ism.”

Irreverent to the max, presenting material that’s out-and-out outlandishly illogical and decidedly scatological, some pieces seem best appreciated by those politically informed who don’t suffer fools gladly while some sketches seem like the kind of content that would send junior high school-aged boys– for whom content about close contact with fecal matter is a most welcome laughing matter. And one wonders if some of Unitard’s loyal following over their 25-year career began as such teens. 

Ready, willing, and able to hit any target and topic, the variety of tones and treatments in Unitard’s comedy capers in their forms of funny recalls a spoken line in the musical A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: “We will employ every device we know in our desire to divert you."

Learn more about Unitard on their Instagram here.

Header photo of Unitard by Noah Fecks

Red Eye NY is at 355 West 41 Street in Manhattan

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