Christmas Thrills and High Adventure
by Richard Nathan
directed by Denise Devin
ZJU Theatre Group, NoHo
Fridays at 11 pm, through December 30
Brought up on The Carol Burnett Show and Saturday Night Live, I love sketch comedy. It makes its point rather fast, and if it's really, really funny, you don't have to be hit over the head more than once to buy into it. Zombie Joe's Underground (ZJU) Theatre Group in NoHo is specializing in some off-the-wall, upbeat sketches in their Christmas Thrills and High Adventure, now onstage Fridays at 11 pm through December 30.
There's music on the bill as well, so it's really a variety hour akin to the
Burnett Show, except certain things would get bleeped in prime time. That's why live theatre like ZJU takes more risks; there will be a selective audience who are there because they want to be. They want to be titillated by the raucous and risque flavor of material that is at once inventive, unique...and still awfully funny. Richard Nathan is responsible for the conglomeration of nutty scenes in this piece, that could play with or without Christmas, but it's fun to throw a Santa in for good measure, especially a naughty one. As a matter of fact, he puts in several Santas, some may be naughty, but they are Santas after all, so there is some good to the message that emerges. As in "The Visitor" in which a spaceship captain (Miranda Sterling) is so full of herself that her best Christmas present is the validation of her masterful upper hand, and so good guy Santa (Shali Mals) lets her have her way with him, thereby allowing her to feel good about herself. What a nice Santa, who'll even take abuse, to make his point! There are other hilarious sketches, my favorites being
A Pirate Christmas with Captain Roderick Reef (Alex Medina) with lots of sword play and hot air, and
Brandon Baines the Dejected Detective in the Santa Claus Caper (Kevin Michael Shiley) in which a film noir Private Dick investigates beautiful girls, diamond thieves but sadly ends up alone again, naturally. There's a cute opening rendition of "Santa Baby" (Katherine Bowman) and a great "Chanukah Song" with guitar and vocals by Leif La Duke.
Director
Denise Devin really knows how to keep a late night audience alert, with her fast-paced, no-nonsense in.your.face approach, and the talent is enormous. Standouts, as well as the aforementioned Shiley, Mals, La Duke, Sterling, and Medina, include Lindsay Stuart and Neysa Lozano. This is great training for these young actors under Devin's caring guidance. Thrills, spills and high adventure? OK, so maybe it's not
Indiana Jones or
Pirates of the Caribbean, but I sure had a good time and laughed my socks off. Go out and support them!
rated xx for nudity and lewd sexual behavior, so make sure the little tykes are nestled all snug in their beds - in short, leave them home!!
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