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Wacky 'Stage Fright' is fresh, silly

By John Quinn

As I mentioned in the recent critics' podcast (and you DID listen to the podcast on http://www.EncoreMichigan.com, didn't you, my adoring fans?) there are an impressive number of original shows hitting stages all over the Metro Detroit area this season.
While original material is the order of the day at Ferndale's Go Comedy! Improv Theater, resident company members Pete Jacokes and Jen Hansen, assisted by Bob Wieck, bring an exceptionally fresh twist to the traditional "backstage" comedy. Their wacky farce, "Stage Fright," poses the question: What happens when horror themes collide? Think "Dracula" meets "Night of the Living Dead."
An intrepid but hapless community theater group is producing yet another version of Bram Stoker's "Dracula," unaware that an epidemic is turning the world outside into brain-eating zombies. When stage hand Eric Heilner begins biting cast members, what can plucky stage manager Michele Giorlando do but try to keep going? Unfortunately, in this instance, the show must go wrong.
The script is fresh and as full of gags as a pumpkin is full of seeds. Jacokes directs his own material, and his ensemble delivers over-the-top performances in this thoroughly silly story. The giddy ghouls include Chris Peterson as the pompous Dr. Gideon West, adaptor of "Dracula," who has starred himself as Jonathan Harker, Stoker's hero; Jen Bloomer, James Quesada, Carrie Hall, Dan Brittain and Jeff Mansk. Also in the cast is Brian Papandrea, who is finally allowed the canvas-chewing "big scene" denied him in "RoGoCop the Musical" when his character was unceremoniously bumped off. Jen and Ted Hansen are responsible for the very attractive costuming and a whole lotta unattractive gore.
But in launching a new production, de devil is in de-tale. As this is a "backstage" comedy, what's going on back there is as important as what is in front of the curtain. A lot of choice material is getting lost for lack of volume.
But … I'm no prude in the rough language department. After all, in my misspent youth I was a Teamster and can cuss with the worst of them. Yet the f-bomb is not my first line of defense against the cold, cruel world; I have to work up to it. The word isn't intrinsically funny; it needs context. "Stage Fright" has a fine comic build going. Much of that tempo is achieved through the character of Michelle Giorlando's unflappable stage manager, who seems able to keep her head when all about her are losing theirs and blaming it on her. A decline in language that paced the deterioration of "Dracula" would drive the comedy home, particularly as that pace accelerates in the last 10 minutes of the show.
So as the season of things that go bump in the night approaches, hearken to the message of "Stage Fright." Don't go losing your mind – OR your brains!

'Stage Fright'
Go Comedy! Improv Theater, 261 E. Nine Mile Rd., Ferndale, 10 p.m. Thursdays through Oct. 27, plus special midnight performances Oct. 28-29. $5. 248-327-0575 http://www.gocomedy.net

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