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Dramatic Retrospection: From Charles Busch to Oscar Wilde, North Texas' best theater of 2004 By Arnold Wayne Jones /Excerpted from Dallas Voice 12/31/2004 ©2004 1. Red Scare on Sunset (Uptown Players) In the past few years, Charles Busch has not been merely in evidence, he's been inevitable. The best local production of one of this plays, "Red Scare on Sunset" was the year's most deliciously funny romp, and one not nearly as inane as the title suggests. Coy Covington, who played 1950s-era starlet Mary Dale, stole the show, but the entire cast was excellent... THE COLUMN: ANNUAL ISSUE OF BEST & WORST OF 2004 by John Garcia / Excerpted from The Column 1/14/2005 ©2005 Top Ten Theater Productions 2004... (6) RED SCARE ON SUNSET (Uptown Players) A wild evening of loud laughter thanks to a collection of wonderfully-yet mentally insane- talented comedic pros, all under the always dependable direction of Andi Allen. Charles Busch would be extremely pleased on how this cast and director worked their magic on his play. But when you have such talent as Coy Covington, Nye Cooper, Brian Gonzales, Steve Lovett, Jim Lindsay, etc. how can you go wrong here?! 2004 TOP PERFORMANCES OF THE YEAR... Coy Covington (RED SCARE ON SUNSET, Uptown Players): He was one of the very few actors this past season who received rave reviews from all the critics for his perfect, side splitting performance as a famous movie star who is dealing with commies and a drunk husband. "The Column" readers seemed to agree, voting Covington for a second year in a row "The Column" award for BEST ACTOR. I second that verdict! How many actors can channel Susan Hayworth, Joan Crawford, and Rosalind Russell-all at once? Not many, but Covington did, in abundance... Brian Gonzales (RED SCARE ON SUNSET, Uptown Players): The guy is a maestro when it comes to comedy. The cigarette scene alone had me laughing loudly for minutes. From his facial expressions, to his delivery-the guy had me rolling in my seat in laughter. 'Red' no whitewash of excesses: Uptown Players' finery outfits Hollywood satire at every two-faced level By Lawson Taitte / Excerpted from Dallas Morning News 4/24/2004 ©2004 There's bad bad acting and there's good bad acting. Uptown Players' Red Scare on Sunset has far more of the good sort. Charles Busch's farce dares to be political...Both right and left, this plays says, are all too quick to quash freedom. Especially sexual freedom, of course, in this show tailored to a gay audience with Givenchy elegance. Mr. Busch raises high camp to the stratospheric, with his leading role, movie star Mary Dale, played by a cross-dressing man (Coy Covington) and doubles entendres in almost every line. Mary's husband, Frank Taggart (Nye Cooper), tries to pull his career out of a tailspin by signing up for method acting classes... Mary's best friend, radio comedienne Pat Pilford (Lisa Anne Haram), is being blackmailed by her Red former lover, Pulitzer- winning playwright Mitchell Drake (Brian Gonzales)...Andi Allen has directed the show in a very broad style... The approach does pay off in a lot of laughs, especially at the show's melodramatic climax, when murder and suicide keep 'em rolling in the aisles. Mr. Gonzalez actually manages to underplay hilariously in the midst of all this extravagantly fake emoting. The others get their laughs from sheer excess. Mr. Cooper does this most consistently. Every melodramatic downcast look comes off brilliantly.... Mr. Covington looks as demure and as fresh-faced as Doris Day as he towers over the other actors in his high heels. The actor's fans clearly dote on him...The costumes by Suzie Shankle and Bill Bullard are just right. And Steven-Shayle Rhodes' wigs are so fine you wish some other companies around town would take a hint. Red Scare tactics get big laughs in satire By Perry Stewart / Excerpted from Star-Telegram 4/25/2004 ©2004 Uptown Players of Dallas has revived Red Scare in broadly melodramatic style, leaving no double-take unturned. Director Andi Allen may even have added a sneer here or a glare there...There are at least two scenes in Red Scare that do not rely on leering melodrama and are howlingly funny. One is an 11th-century fantasy flashback (a field day for costume designers Bill Bullard and Suzi Shankle). The other is a radio show sabotaged by communist scriptwriters. Both showcase Coy Covington's vivid, cross-dressed sketch of Mary Dale, a 1950s movie star... Covington's bravura turn is matched by Lisa Anne Haram as a Hollywood survivor who can turn any moment into a bawdy gag. Like Covington, she is adept at straddling melodrama and legitimate comedy. When these two get together, it's Guffaw City. As Frank, Nye Cooper combines matinee-idol looks and a Reefer Madness acting style. Jim Lindsay and John de los Santos shine in multiple roles, as does Renee Krapff as the resident femme fatale. Brian Gonzales actually underplays his character, an evil screenwriter. Steve Lovett, meanwhile, goes over the top and into orbit as a corrupt producer. Merry McCarthyism: Uptown Players take a comic romp through Hollywood's commie-fearing '50s By Elaine Liner / Excerpted from The Dallas Observer 4/28/2004 ©2004 "It's a maaaaaarvelous script," says radiant screen queen Mary Dale of her role as Lady Godiva in a big-budget bio-pic set in the 11th century. "Really illuminates those troubled times. And we have some terrific musical numbers." Dale, sleeker than Lana Turner, sweeter than Doris Day, is playwright Charles Busch's symbol of old Hollywood in his comedy Red Scare on Sunset...That Mary is played by a man, in this case the expert gender-bending actor Coy Covington, is just one of the twists that makes Busch's sharp social satire such fun. Mary Dale is anything but a method actress. Her on-camera method (as was Spencer Tracy's) is simply "Learn your lines and don't bump into the furniture" (a line uttered by Covington with impeccable comic timing)...Busch, who draws inspiration from old Hollywood for almost all of his plays, manages to temper his biting political statements about jingoistic patriotism and shallow American values in Red Scare by maintaining a farcical tone that isn't just over the top, but over the top of the top of the top. The man-in-drag as the leading lady is just the half of it. There's also a screaming queen houseboy (John de los Santos), a producer (Steve Lovett) in a white suit only Sydney Greenstreet could love and a leering director (Jim Lindsay) in a beret and jodhpurs who turns out to be, well, that's a secret...The Uptown cast, directed by Andi Allen, throws itself into all of this with remarkable flair and oodles of energy. Coy Covington out-glams his last wig-and-wiggle performance in last year's Ruthless! by becoming part Donna Reed, part Susan Hayward as Mary Dale. Every glossy pose, every double-take, every curl of Mary's lip is perfection. As husband Frank, Nye Cooper gets to show off his deft physical comedy skills. Drunkenly shaking off a trench coat, he's a little bit Don Knotts, a little Charlie Chaplin...Cooper matches Covington evenly in the mugging department. From the rest of the strong ensemble, Renee Krapff is a standout as Marta, using a voice redolent of old Hollywood's insistence on the "Mid-Atlantic" accent. And by not joining the other actors in a buffet of scenery chewing, Brian Gonzales gets big laughs by underplaying his role as a leftie playwright. He and Krapff do some great funny business with lit cigarettes...the costumes by Suzie Shankle and Bill Bullard have the '50s elegance of a Douglas Sirk film...Simply divine, dahling. Covington's wardrobe is particularly impressive. He even gets a fresh gown for his bows in front of the red velvet curtain. Yes, a red curtain. Maaaaaarvelous. The Coy-munist Threat: Covington steals the show in the riotous campfest 'Red Scare on Sunset' By Arnold Wayne Jones / Excerpted from The Dallas Voice 4/30/2004 ©2004 The secret to acting in a melocomedy like "Red Scare on Sunset" - and Charles Busch does not write melodramas; he writes melocomedies - is a little trick called "eyebrow acting." It's the way performers transmit the sad, tortured, potentially life-changing aspect of every plot point with their faces, usually without a hint of irony... In the proper hands, no word should be spoken to sound natural or authentic, and no kiss should be sincerely felt but instead simply look wet and passionate... Eyebrow acting is not bad acting, at least not necessarily. In fact, finding the perfect pitch - tightrope-walking the fine line between awful and delicious - may be the subtlest (and most daring) task you can expect of an actor. Thank goodness, then, actors who know the distinction populate the Uptown Players' production of "Red Scare". John de los Santos, Brian Gonzales, Lisa Anne Haram and Nye Cooper in particular all seethe and hiss and clench their jaws like they've just stepped on a rusty nail. They are marvelous. But the master of them all is Coy Covington. Covington seems born to play over-the-top tragic heroines...He's intense and light, and perhaps the best comic actor working on Dallas stages right now. Cooper, looking sallow, tired and vaguely ghoulish as Frank, reads every line as if it were accented by an organ chord from a radio soap opera. Gonzales plays sinister as half William Shatner, half Orson Welles, while Krapff does something impressive with her voice, sounding at once like every 40s-era movie actress from B-girls like Marie Windsor to Katharine Hepburn. Director Andi Allen has a gift for this material. Even when she doesn't insert musical cues to hammer home the camp factor, she sets the action in motion such that you'd swear a Max Steiner score is lurking backstage, in the shadows, ready to pounce like Stalin's cat. Red Scare on Sunset By John Garcia / Excerpted from The Column 4/26/2004 ©2004 Director Andi Allen paints her production with an over-the-top brush...the script does call for such direction, so it's a perfect fit here. There are characters and moments for the entire company to have delicious fun with, and they all do. From Lisa Anne Haram's gossipy Pat Pilford, to Steve Lovett's Marlon Brando-ish evil henchman, to Jim Lindsay's daffy Saleslady, to Renee Krapff's "ode to Kate Hepburn" performance of a serious actress. John de los Santos provides a hysterical scene stealing performance as a houseboy who falls for his employer (a male movie star)...But there are three performances that will having you rolling in the aisles laughing and wiping tears from your eyes. Brian Gonzales provides a gut-busting performance as the sleazy, nasty Mitchell Drake. The actor seems to be channeling Humphrey Bogart, James Bond, Larry Flynt, and oddly enough Richard O'Brien's Riff Raff-all at once...Nye Cooper is hilarious as the suave-if somewhat clueless-Hollywood star...Cooper's Frank Taggert is a mixture of Cary Grant and John Barrymore (after a few drinks)...Finally there is Coy Covington in the central role of Mary Dale, the movie star. A man in drag is always funny, but after five minutes you have to do much more to sustain and carry the performance. Covington is a master craftsman (or is it woman?) in this genre. His vision of Ms. Dale is that of Susan Hayward, Ginger Rogers, and Doris Day. Covington (like Gonzales & Cooper) knows exactly which words or lines to give that extra comic touch resulting in uproarious laughter. Cooper and Covington also have sublime comic chemistry that adds yet another layer of laughs. They are the new Lunt and Fontaine of the metroplex theater family. Uptown Players is now in the midst of their third season. For the most part, this company has consistently provided noteworthy productions...they can add RED SCARE ON SUNSET in "hits" column as well. |