|
Contra Costa Times "Takes A Cruise" Review (2006)
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
KML cruises into uncharted waters
By Pat Craig
Originally published by Costa Contra Times, February 25, 2006.
(c) 2006, All rights reserved.
Killing My Lobster weathered some rough seas before cruising into hilarious smooth sailing with its newest sketch comedy show, "Killing My Lobster Takes a Cruise."
Performing in San Francisco's Brava Theatre Center, a much larger than usual venue for the company, a number of the early bits in the show that opened Thursday were lost in the enormous size of the renovated Mission District movie/vaudeville theater. That was thanks in no small part to a sound system that muffled voices and blunted some of the sharpness of opening numbers, such as an audition for a new captain, a competition between Capt. Nemo, Capt. Ahab, Capt. Hook and the Skipper from "Gilligan's Island," to replace the Captain who was late for the beginning of the voyage.
The true captain finally made it, and the show sailed into less troublesome waters with skits including a peg-leg aerobics class taught by a pirate and a look into the engine room, where the ship is powered by frenetic dancers following the video instructions from the kind of dance machine that seems to occupy so many pre-adolescent boys in arcades and movie theater lobbies.
In a sense, "Takes a Cruise" is the most difficult show for the company, simply because, unlike more loosely constructed earlier shows, this one is built around a pretty narrow theme -- cruise ships, something not many of KML's audience has experienced. Of course, the program notes made reference to TV's "Love Boat," which has become something of a perverse cult favorite.
The main difficulty with the show, however, appeared to be a lack of adequate rehearsal and the opportunity for the cast to work with the material and adapt it to their own style. Since much of the cast is new to the company, they needed additional time to get into the Lobster rhythm that made previous shows so strong.
This is something additional performances should resolve. Certainly the bits that worked -- a number in the first act and most in the wonderfully frenetic second -- indicate the cast has the comedy chops to pull off a wonderfully funny show.
Director John Dixon kept the pace lively, and some of the sketches, including a Ninja parody of "Brokeback Mountain" and a surreal little bit that moved through time and space from the past to the present and from the cruise ship to Alameda and then to a BART train, were enormously clever and had the familiar Lobster touch.
KML continues to be the Bay Area's most reliable sketch comedy troupe, both in terms of consistent material and production values of shows. The company, for example, usually uses live music for its production, this time with a jazz trio led by Erik Jekabson, who also composed the original music for the show.
Pat Craig is the Contra Costa Times Theater Critic.
|
