Skip to main contentPacked into dark parlors that were wet with sweat and thick with pipe smoke and booze fumes, immigrant laborers caroused amid a bawdy stew of singing, dancing and the unadorned fringe of theater. This was New York's Bowery at the end of the 19th century. Compared with the affluent Broadway halls, it may as well have been the dark side of the moon. The masses took possession of this brash and unapologetic theatrical expression. It accentuated and exalted their lives, becoming an essential more precious than money.
Vaudeville was a direct descendent of these shows. A word that in French simply means a satirical song blossomed into a movement dependent upon the disenfranchised American proletariat for its strength. Vaudeville today still swims in our distant memory as something patently American and ancient.
Those with a living memory of these evening bills of acrobats, comedians and actors are becoming few. Old Vaudeville died a long time ago, finally eclipsed by its bastard children radio and, later, motion pictures. But New Vaudeville--born at the end of the 1960s from various new trends in mime and the circus--is still enjoying rude health as a new generation of performers pumps continued life into it.
Last weekend, a gathering of musicians, actors and one brave comedian took another small step toward carrying on the tradition. Brian Karlovic presented Zompei: A Musical Journey... (an amalgam of improvisational mime and dell'arte), while Anna Soderberg (who offered a piece of classically influenced clowning), the band The Motive, and Stephen Cohen (who rendered his eccentric street-level perspectives on life through musical lamentations) filled out the bill. All are on the verge of creating something worthwhile, but for now, it is not "le extravaganza" it endeavors to be.
At best, this is an unfinished project that reveals glimpses of potential. Most detrimental is a lack of the momentum and energy a variety of acts should provide. Some performances linger for 30 to 40 minutes, a grave error that gives the piece a three-hour running time. Each of these performers deserves plenty of time, but in a show of their own. An audience arriving to expect a rapid procession of acts will be met with a less-than-boisterous evening's entertainment. As it stands, this Vaudeville is simply a gathering of talents with no fuse to light the keg.
Without the house amenities of yesteryear (the liquor, the prostitutes mingling with the crowd) the evening starts to feel like an eternity. Still, the idea is a grand one. Cohen's musical contraptionism and Karlovic's mime and featured short film are highlights. But much still needs to be distilled.
But then, even Old Vaudeville wasn't built in a day.
Zompei Productions at the Artichoke Backgate Stage, 3130 SE Hawthorne Blvd., 235-4401. 8 pm Friday- Saturday. Closes March 23. $10.
WWeek 2015