BWW Reviews: Muddy Waters Opens Season of Paula Vogel with THE BALTIMORE WALTZ

Muddy Waters Theatre opens their season devoted to playwright Paula Vogel with her OBIE award-winning work, The Baltimore Waltz, a play best described as a kind of farcical fever dream that satirizes AIDS hysteria. It was apparently written as a sort of literary "AIDS quilt" that allowed the author to deal with the loss of someone close to her. Any play that can somehow corral together a slide show of downtown Baltimore, a shout out to John Waters, and a urine drinking scene is certainly interesting entertainment in my book.

Elementary school teacher Anna finds she has contracted the deadly disease ATD (Acquired Toilet Disease). Faced with this tragic news, and at the suggestion of her close brother, Carl, she heads for Europe seeking a cure from a mysterious doctor in Vienna. Along the way she proceeds to turn every hotel employee or casual acquaintance into a sexual conquest. But, as in any farce, nothing is at it appears to be.

Kate Frisina gives an understated and subdued performance as Anna, and that works against the screwball nature of the play, and the more frantic rhythms that it suggests. Stephen Peirick does solid work as her brother Carl, but even he seems to be downplaying in order to be at the same level as Frisina. DJ Sanders fares far better in a variety of roles that include a couple of doctors, mad and otherwise, an anxious bell hop, a punk from a bar, the little Dutch boy, and even the ever elusive Harry Lime (complete with the theme from The Third Man played on the zither). Sanders perfectly captures the zany atmosphere this work requires in order for it to be as funny as it is moving.

Director Jerry McAdams keeps the actors focused and in motion for the most part, but there's a definite lack of intensity that allows interest to wane. The play itself kind of hits a lull about two-thirds of the way through when it becomes a bit repetitious, but this production never really takes flight like it should. Scott Griffith's lighting illuminates the action and adds a bit of a film noir feel during the scenes in Europe, and the costumes by Keaton Treece are simple but effective.

Muddy Waters Theatre's presentation of The Baltimore Waltz continues through March 20, 2011 at the Kranzberg Arts Center.

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