Leave It to Beverly, DA! Theatre Collective at the Off Center, November 5 -21

Kirk German's Leave It to Beverly is a rib-tickler. His characters and cast go sailing off into TV Land of the 1950s and 1960s, taking the gags and the mannerisms way up over the top. DA! applies its energetic young 21st-century humor to Mom and Pop's naive entertainments and comes away a winner.

Consider, for example, canned laughter. The early days of television featured many programs filmed before live audiences, but with rising costs and the introduction of video tape, producers were happy to sweeten audience reactions or do away with them entirely by using "laugh tracks." A single eccentric artist, Charlie Douglas, pretty much had the monopoly of that business through the 1960s, thanks to his "laff box," a complicated non-computerized device.

German's opening episode "Leave It to Beverly" features our dear housewife Beverly, newly a mother of twins, and Husband, a big, genial horned-rim-glasses-wearing avatar of Robert Young. Author and actors satirize the saccharine and the silliness of those classic sitcoms, in an acting style both coy and twinkling, and the action is regularly interrupted by roars of recorded laughter.

Beverly and her girlfriends become somewhat flustered by this unexplained punctuation of their lives. Eventually, after "Trixie Knows Best," the knock-off of both Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie, the girls discover great big tins resembling 2-gallon Campbell's soup containers, labeled "HA.HA.HA." Within them is a gelatinous colored substance that has got to be the canned laughter that permeates their existence. How it got there and the reason for it are enigmas that are solved in the final, post-intermission episode, "Make Room for Lorraine."

Read more and see images at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Leave It To Beverly by Kirk German, DA! Theatre Collective at the Off Center, November 5 - 21

UPDATE: Click for ALT review, November 11

Received directly:

Leave it to Beverly

DA! Theatre Collective is proud to present the world premiere of Kirk German's three-part 1950s sit-com-gone-wrong, Leave it to Beverly.

The show opens on November 5 at The Off Center and runs for three weekends. The performance on Friday, November 6 is followed by a live performance by The Greatest American Heroes, Austin's favorite TV Theme Song Band.

TICKETS $15 - $25 (sliding scale), $12 Students/Seniors/ACOT Members
E-mail: tickets@datheatrecollective.org
Phone: Brown Paper Tickets at 1-800-838-3006 or (512) 484-1242
Online: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/84993

Originally workshopped to great acclaim as a one-act in Vermont, and later at the Frontera Fest Short Fringe in 2003 (where it was recognized as a Best-of-Fest selection), Leave it to Beverly subverts the classic sit-com genre through three interconnected acts (Leave it to Beverly, Trixie Knows Best, and Make Room for Lorraine). Each fast-paced and bizarre episode features an archetypal TV female confronting her artificial universe in hilarious and unexpected ways.

Guaranteed to leave you craving the good ol' days of Nick-at-Nite (but with a twist), Leave it to Beverly confronts consumerism, turns gender roles upside-down, and celebrates the elusive mysteries of Tupperware, Astroturf, and Mr. Clean.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: Direct Object, Da! Theatre Collective, Studio Space at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre, September 17 - 26

Found on-line:

Direct Object

DA! Theatre Collective is proud to present the return of Direct Object, DA!'s award-winning debut show inspired by the world-famous and long-running production from Moscow, Objects and People.

Condensing story-telling into its most essential elements, Direct Object presents a series of transformative and astonishing vignettes which feature people interacting with every-day objects as you've never seen them before.

A tortilla-maker's rolling pin transforms him into a bold matador. A librarian takes sudden flight from the pages of an Austin Chronicle. And who knows what may happen with a soccer ball, a back-pack, a scarf, a trunk, an umbrella, an exercise bungee, and more?

This latest incarnation of Direct Object is directed by Heather Huggins and features Jude Hickey, Robin Grace Thompson, Kirk German, Lisa del Rosario, Scott Roskilly, Michelle Brandt, Jacob Trussell, Stephanie Denson, Heather Huggins, and Wallis Currie-Wood, with an original score by Travis Cooper and Melissa Jurrens.

The show opens on September 17 at the studio space of the Salvage Vanguard Theatre and runs for two weekends. Tickets are sliding scale: $10/$15/$20/$25. Wednesday, September 23rd is pay-what-you-can. Call (512) 474-7886 or go online and reserve your tickets today!

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Review: FronteraFest, Week 4

Ryan E. Johnson posted on Austin.com his picks for the best for week 4 of the FronteraFest Short Fringe:

Almost Entirely Unlike Comedy, Hank Schwemmer

Mr. Schave and His Vaudeville Vignettes, Ben Schave

57 Boyfriends, Stephanie Denson

Dada Space Clown, David Jewell

Click for his comments on FronteraFest Week 4

Relative Space by DA! Theatre Collective at the Hyde Park Theatre, December 7 - 17 (Sundays through Wednesdays)

Like an extra gift crammed down into the toe of your Christmas stocking, Relative Space is deftly tucked into the off-hours at Hyde Park Theatre on 43rd street. It’s rare that you can get to enjoy theatre or dance on a Sunday-to-Wednesday cycle, unless some touring company cruises through town in that usually “dark” period. This short frolic rolls at 5 p.m. on Sunday and 8 p.m. each following evening, time-sharing the playing space with Xmas Unwrapped, A Burlesque Christmas.

Relative Space features four gals and three guys in lively, happy frolic, bouncing off every corner and angle in the oddly configured Hyde Park Theatre. Choreographer Lisa del Rosario (pictured) stations her dancers anonymously in the audience, then comes hustling in as the last spectator for the show. She seats herself, blinks those big eyes of hers, does another couple of bits of business, then initiates a clapping, slapping rhythm that’s gradually taken up by the dancers, still in their seats.

Read More at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .