Review: NOW PLAYING THIRD BASE FOR THE ST. LOUIS CARDINALS…BOND, JAMES BOND at The Chapel

The Midnight Company's current offering of NOW PLAYING THIRD BASE FOR THE ST. LOUIS CARDINALS...BOND, James Bond is set against a backdrop of baseball and the historical events of the early 1960's. The show starts as Playwright and Performer, Joe Hanrahan, breaks the fourth wall telling the audience that this is a story of the theater and how a one man play comes about.

A teenage boy arrives at a ball diamond on a steamy summer day telling his friend he had just seen the sexy and action-packed James Bond movie From Russia with Love. The 14-year old narrates the entire plot of the movie paralleling how a single actor would orate a one man play. The movie plot is interspersed with the events of 1964 just after the assassination of JFK. The playwright takes on racism, segregation, integration, white flight, the success of the 1964 St. Louis Cardinals, and the emergence of The Beatles.

Hanrahan effectively dons dozens of characters using vocal acrobatics and physical acting. He is at his best when imitating Sean Connery as James Bond. The play is entertaining when taking on the events and complexities of the early 1960s, but stalls each time the script returns to the lengthy discussion of the movie plot.

St. Louis audiences will find added charm in the show due to the extensive discussion of the 1964 baseball season. An integrated Cardinals team defeated the all-white New York Yankees team in 7 games, foreshadowing today's workforce theory that embracing diversity improves business performance.

Now Playing Third Base is more than just the assertion that a one may play comes from people telling stories. It provides historical context for the events of the early 1960s taking on the important issues of that decade.

NOW PLAYING THIRD BASE FOR THE ST. LOUIS CARDINALS...BOND, James Bond will be performed July 8 - 25, 2020, Thursdays thru Saturdays at 8pm with a matinee on Sunday, July 25, 2021 at 2:00pm. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased through MetroTix.com.