Review: SUMMER SHORTS at City Theatre

Summer Shorts Sing

Twenty one years now Miami's City Theatre has been producing its annual program, SUMMER SHORTS, and congratulations to them for persevering with such a difficult art form.

Across the country aspiring playwrights rise with the morning dew convinced that a ten minute play is just the thing. How hard could it be? Ten minutes? A snap. Sit a couple at a table and let 'em ramble. A few tears, a few gags, toss in the meaning of life and you're done.

Well, not quite. It takes a master craftsman/woman to enthrall in ten minutes. Or fifteen. Or twenty. Some of the best actors in town are often stuck with mediocre scripts; sometimes they're helped by the direction, sometimes not.

So cheers this year to City Theatre for choosing nine short pieces that sometimes rise above the morass.

BEST LEI'D PLANS features sparkling Elizabeth Dimon and Karen Stephens opening the show as a pair of mothers-in-law praising each other's offspring just after their Hawaiian wedding. Funny with a nice surprise, but static and little long.

Paul Rudnik's CABIN PRESSURE has the always funny Tom Wahl as a gay flight attendant receiving The Medal of Honor for subduing a terrorist during flight. A typically clever Rudnik script with one or two flat spots and again, quite lengthy.

EGGS has Alex Alvarez and Meredith Bartmon watching their kids turn into scrambled ova. Unusual, lengthy one joke.

Alvarez and Bartmon return in the musical EVELYN SCHAFFER AND THE CHANCE OF A LIFETIME and this is probably the best piece of the evening. Bartmon's singing and characterization are just right and Alvarez gets one of his few chances to show his talent.

F4 has a suicidal farmer trying to terminate himself by tornado. Tom Wahl as the farmer and Cherise James as the savior EMT do well by a not very interesting script. Relative newcomer James shines here, as, of course, does Wahl.

Another musical, WARPED, features Andres Moldonado, Karen Stephens, Tom Wahl, Elizabeth Dimon and an uncredited Alex Alvarez. A fun piece with Tom Wahl as an hysterically brilliant conversationalist and Elizabeth Dimon singing in solid state hard drive.

Karen Stephens is perfect in THE TALK as a mother waving a dildo at her adult daughter, and Cherise James is right in step playing daughter knows best.

Meredith Bartmon, no sense of humor, and Andres Moldonado, third rate comic, get every subtle laugh from THE RULES OF COMEDY, a clever piece about learning to live.

And finally, the big closer, jamming everyone on stage whether there's a role or not, and having the longest title, I BURIED DOUG BIGGERS ALIVE BUT HE'S PROBABLY DEAD BY NOW, because of course that makes the piece funnier. Elizabeth Dimon has the lead, explaining at length why she killed her husband. Various people say their lines and eventually it all ends with a whimper. This piece was commissioned by City Theatre.

So of course you like some, you hate some, and that's the way it always is with short play festivals everlasting.

Margaret M. Ledford is the artistic director and also directed three of the pieces. The other directors are Elizabeth Dimon, Jessica Farr and Paul Tei.

Musical direction by Justin Landers, lighting by Preston Bircher, scenic design by Jodi Dellaventura, costumes by Ellis Tillman and sound by Steve Shapiro.

SUMMER SHORTS plays through July 3 in the Carnival Studio Theatre at the Arsht Center, 1300 Biscayne Boulevard, Miami. 305-949-6722 http://www.arshtcenter.org

To post a comment, you must register and login.