ENTERTAINMENT

Which play to see this weekend: 4 theater reviews in a nutshell

Kerry Lengel

The Republic | azcentral.com

Ron May in Actors Theatre's 2012 production of "The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs."

With just days to go before the election, two local theaters want your anti-Trump vote. Only one deserves it. Here are this week’s short reviews.

Great ★★★★★ Good ★★★★

Fair ★★★ Bad ★★ Bomb ★

NEW REVIEWS:

‘The Trump Card’ has more up its sleeve than one-liners

★★★★

Just to be clear, Stray Cat Theatre founder Ron May isn’t playing Donald Trump for 90 minutes in “The Trump Card” – although he does do an amusing impression involving a pair of tiny plastic hands. Instead, the character he is playing is that of Mike Daisey, the monologue artist who created the piece and originally performed it, complete with self-deprecating first-person ruminations. And this is a little bit weird, adding an extra layer to the audience’s willing suspension of disbelief. But the writing and May’s delivery are both excellent: funny, provocative and ultimately depressing, at least if you buy into Daisey’s analysis of the Trump phenomenon. He started researching before anyone could have imagined that the onetime reality-TV host would become a legit contender for the White House, so — happily enough — this isn’t an extended “Saturday Night Live” election sketch. Instead, it delves into Trump’s childhood with a domineering father and traces his evolution from real-estate tycoon to branding genius whose many products included a Trump board game that Daisey describes as “Monopoly for dogs.” Obviously, this is an anti-Trump piece, but it is not simple partisan hackery. And May-as-Daisey reserves plenty of scorn for clueless liberals and diagnoses Trumpism as something more than just another bubbling over of America’s populist id.

Bottom line: Come for the mockery, stay for the trenchant cultural criticism. Even if you disagree with the point of view, you’ll have plenty to argue about on the ride home.

Details: Reviewed Saturday, Oct. 29. Continues through Sunday, Nov. 6. Tempe Center for the Arts, 700 W. Rio Salado Parkway. $20-$25. 480-227-1766, straycattheatre.org.

‘American Pastorela’ puts politics ahead of punch lines

★★

In his opening-night curtain speech for “American Pastorela: The Trumpifornication Tour,” New Carpa Theater founder James E. Garcia described the company as his personal open-mike night. And you know what they say: It’s funny because it’s true. As a playwright, Garcia is often plodding and ham-handed, and no more so than in this exceedingly unfunny satire of the current presidential election. The story — a Mexican-American family with two moms walks across the desert so they can register to vote in Phoenix — is an excuse for sketch-style impersonations of Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Joe Arpaio and others, padded out with pop-culture references. Which is fine as formulas go, but the jokes aren’t funny, and they’re made worse by the cast’s behind-the-beat timing. (One exception: Karan Kumar is spot on as Satan, and is a pretty good dancer to boot.) But the biggest problem is the endless anti-Republican sermonizing inserted into every scene, dragging the play out to an exhausting 2½ hours.

Bottom line: There’s nothing wrong with preaching to the choir, but the point is to rev them up — not put them to sleep.

Details: Reviewed Thursday, Oct. 27. Continues through Sunday, Nov. 6. Helen K. Mason Performing Arts Center, 1333 E. Washington St., Phoenix. $20. 623-252-2772, newcarpa.org.

CONTINUING SHOWS:

‘Rock the Presidents,’ a political musical for kids, is fun and balanced

★★★★

The original cast of Childsplay's "Rock the Presidents" (from left): Colin Ross, Eric Boudreau and Yolanda London.

Childsplay’s original musical “Rock the Presidents,” which premiered in 2012, is sort of an update on “Schoolhouse Rocks!,” using a grab bag of pop styles to deliver a civics lesson with equal parts sincere patriotism and goofy humor. A cast of three (Alan Khoutakoun, Jacqueline Castillo and Devon Nickel), dressed up as Secret Service agents, sing about presidents famed, infamous and obscure (“Who in the World Is Millard Fillmore?”). There’s a countrified salute to “Ronald Reagan” and a guitar-crunching lament for first-termers called “More Than Four Years,” and in “Shake America,” Andrew Jackson becomes a first-shaking character in a video game. With music by Sarah Roberts and lyrics by Dwayne Hartford, many of the songs are cutesy, but some are genuinely moving, including a folk-rock ballad about the New Deal titled “The Only Thing We Have to Fear.” But some of the material is about to become out of date, such as the Joni Mitchell-esque “First Ladies,” which looks forward to the time that America finally has a “first gentleman.” Then there’s the lilting calypso number “John and Tom,” which points out that even the Founding Fathers fought tooth and nail over the issues of the day, but in the end the country always pulls together. As the most vitriolic election in recent memory grinds to a close, “Rock the Presidents” has a patriotic message that maybe adults needs to hear even more than kids.

Bottom line: Addressing serious issues with both class and sass, it delivers both the “edu” and the “tainment.”

Details: Reviewed Sunday, Oct. 23. Continues through Sunday, Nov. 13. Tempe Center for the Arts, 700 W. Rio Salado Parkway. $12-$26. 480-350-2822, childsplayaz.org.

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‘Funny Girl,’ sans Babs, has glam but not a lot of drama

★★★½

Liz Fallon stars as Fanny Brice in Arizona Broadway Theatre's "Funny Girl."

Barbra Streisand’s starmaking turn in “Funny Girl” — preserved for posterity in the 1968 film adaptation — inevitably looms over any actress to take on the role of Fanny Brice, the early-20th-century star of Broadway and the “Ziegfeld Follies.” Liz Fallon, who headlines a new production at Arizona Broadway Theatre, wisely steers clear of impersonation and delivers an appealing, if safe, performance. She sounds wonderful torch-crooning “People” and belting “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” and her off-and-on Brooklyn accent — she uses it as a self-deprecating defense mechanism — is a nice touch. Given Brice’s reputation (and the show’s title), it’s a shame that she isn’t much of a comedienne, but her fierce love for inveterate gambler Nick Arnstein shines through, thanks in part to actor Jamie Parnell’s perfect mix of put-on charm and hidden fragility. However, whatever kernels of real-life drama this show contains are buried in old-school musical-theater glitz. That includes the cartoonish supporting cast and the show-within-a-show numbers, such as “Rat-a-Tat,” that do little to develop the story or the characters.

Bottom line: A solid production that does little to kick the dust off a 50-year-old musical.

Details: Reviewed Wednesday, Oct. 19. Continues through Sunday, Nov. 13. Arizona Broadway Theatre, 7701 W. Paradise Lane, Peoria. Call for prices. 623-776-8400, azbroadway.org.

Reach the reviewer at kerry.lengel@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4896. Follow him at facebook.com/LengelOnTheater and twitter.com/KerryLengel.

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