BWW Reviews: Leguizamo's Screamingly Funny GHETTO KLOWN

Ghetto Klown
written by and starring John Leguizamo
directed by Fisher Stevens
The Montalban
through October 16

When does a one person show click into high gear? Only when the actor in question is up to it. Such is certainly the case with Johnny Legz or John Leguizamo in his autobiographical Ghetto Klown. Klown treats more of Leguizamo's career than Freak, for example, but does trace as well the repercussions the career has had on his personal life. Now at The Montalban, funnyman Leguizamo is a must see. Why?

First, to quote himself, he's hyper. The magic lies in his use of every shred of his wound-up, wired charisma to portray this crazy, fast-paced life; it would be impossible to conceive Leguizamo any other way. He moves like the wind and you'll never be bored. Secondly, he proclaims his story a cautionary tale: take what I say and do, or have done, and carefully consider my choices, as they may not work for you. There is something valuable to be learned from a person's mistakes; each individual must judge for himself. Thirdly, Method actor Leguizamo does not lie. What you get is an energetic, bordering on crazed, no-holds-barred monologue that is recklessly, fearlessly funny, and even if slightly exaggerated, it comes from the horse's mouth; it is his truth. Legs has so much vitality, it feels like a marathon race just to keep up with him. But, if you really tune in keenly, you'll surely enjoy and profit.

There's mucho, muchisimo to like here. I particularly loved the dancing to the sounds of the 60s, 70s and 80s. He really gets down and is still in great shape, looking far younger than 47. And then, there's the way he refers to each geographical location with a body part or social disease, like Thailand as the VD Epicenter of the world, or the Penis of Manhattan. Born in 1964 of parents who had left Bogota, Colombia and migrated to New York, Leguizamo tells a ghetto boy's story, how he was arrested as a teen for grabbing the microphone from the controller's booth of the subway station and talking loudly and obscenely over it - whether he knew it or not, he was already starting his acting career; his years with aging acting coach Sylvia Myrtle; his time with Lee Strasberg and his gigs in early films. His voices of Brian DePalma, Al Pacino, his dad and grandpa, Myrtle and everyone else are right on target and hilarious. And the stories about his early impressions of making it based on meritocracy, then the hard-knock facts about learning the ropes through the destructive rather than creative pitfalls of TV and movies - Miami Vice, Casualties of War: how Sean Penn slapped the bejesus out of him in every take and then the scene ended up on the cutting room floor, about prima donna Steven Segal and Executive Decision ... and then, the piece de resistance: Al Pacino telling him to stop acting in their scene in Carlito's Way - all a laugh riot!

It was a heartache for Leguizamo the boy never to have had a father's love and then to be chastised by his father as a man for telling their true story onstage. "Thank you for f-ing me up and making me the man I am." This was his unhappiness, his compromise at the end of his father's life. But to share his unhappiness on stage and be the clown that he was often told not to be, that is who John Leguizamo was and is and in the end there is exultation, as he takes pride and joy in being that crazy lovable creature.

Director Fisher Stevens keeps the pacing up, although I'm sure Leguizamo is 99% responsible, and set design by Happy Massee, lighting design by Jennifer Schriever and projections by Aaron Gonzalez add greatly to the piece which has the unmistakable look, smell and taste of Jackson Heights and other barrios of New York. If iconic comic Lenny Bruce were still alive, he'd be a John Leguizamo fan.

This is a raw, bold, tell it like it is, let it all hang loose theatrical experience like no other. What you see from Legz on film is a hint of magnetic; onstage ... an explosion of a complexly creative comic genius.

(Leave the little ones at home due to obscene language and sexual inuendos).

 

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