BWW Reviews: Treasures Abound at Comedy Garage Sale; Andrea Martin’s FINAL DAYS … EVERYTHING MUST GO! At The McCallum

The McCallum Theatre is on a roll this season, bringing treasure after treasure to the desert's finest theatrical venue. Last Friday was no exception. Film, Television and Broadway comic icon, Andrea Martin, brought her current one woman show FINAL DAYS … EVERYTHING MUST GO! to the desert and delivered an evening of non-stop laughs that garnered her a well deserved standing ovation.

The show opened with the somewhat formulaic "career reel", but it was a good warm-up act for the comedienne and a great reminder of the treasure trove of oddly unique characters she has created over the years. Ms. Martin has dubbed it her "obituary montage". A clever opening number, "Everything Must Go" set the ground rules for the evening (with lyrics like "my whole career I'll sell ya here") and then that is exactly what she delivered – a "career tag sale" that touched upon just about every milestone in her fifty years in the business. She commented on this particular tour playing a lot of smaller venues and smaller cities – like Palm Desert, for example --- calling it the "I've Run Out Of Options Tour". Much of her act was a comment on aging -- her own -- and her mildy self-deprecating banter was hilarious. ("I'm finally doing my own sex tape. It's audio.")

And then she brought out a few of her more recognizable characters – Dr. Cheryl Kinsey, Aunt Voula from My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Edith Prickly – in some well-crafted, audience-interactive sketches that were big on genuine belly laughs. She performed a few musical numbers, accompanied and sometimes joined by Seth Rudetsky, including "Do You Love Me" from Fiddler On The Roof (she starred in the Broadway revival opposite Harvey Fierstein) and, perhaps the highlight of the show, "He's My Boyfriend" from Young Frankenstein.

My only real criticism --- which is actually more of a 'wish" than a critique --- is that the show should have featured more of Ms. Martin's brilliant characters "live" and less on video. While the video highlights of her SCTV days do stand the test of time and are fun to see again, when attending the live theatre it is easy to tire of watching a video screen. The live sketches were gems. The videos can be rented. Ms. Martin's comic timing is impeccable and the subtle, and not-so-subtle, nuances she brings to each of her many characters are a joy to behold. It would have been joyful to behold more of them "live and in person". Kudos, again, to The McCallum for presenting a strong and varied theatrical season.

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