What a start to 2014: Carmine Lucarelli benched by Polar Vortex stranded in L.A. and musical improviser Waylen Miki misses call time due to a major traffic jam on the QEW but flies in the house doors, with genius son Ellery in tow, just as the 3 minute music starts.
The first match pitted Regifted against January’s VISA Bills. Both teams played their new cast members and gave a burst of energy to the beginning of the year. Regifted used all their abdominal resources off the top with illegal belly dancing, after which JVB had to pull out all the stops to race ahead with a Pottery tale about a young aboriginal wizard, which shocked the audience with rookie Mohan’s solid vocal technique. Dudley, the opposing team’s rookie player showed solid emotions in the Yogi Bear scene, and some deft physicality in the Hockey poem. Despite a Fail Trombone in their final scene, JVB was able to squeak ahead of RG by choosing their words carefully in a “mothers I’d like to take to the Prom” scene. The match finished 18-17 for JVB.
Gary Pearson ventured into solo territory when Lucarelli was sidelined, but Toronto guests Lisa Merchant and Herbie Barnes as The Muggles battled constant interference with Pearson’s Fan Club jumping into literally every scene. The Shakespearean Ice Storm was a well-told tragedy of bark cellulitis, revenge and longing, but pint-sized Ellery blew the audience away with his Terrantino prince-killing in the Sleeping Beauty scene, as The Prince of Bread smooched Sleeping Beauty out of her stupor and little children in the audience ran screaming from Georgina’s wicked witch. The Muggles took the second match 26-25.
COME BACK IN FEBRUARY ON VALENTINE’S DAY TO SEE THE NEXT INSTALLMENT OF … THEATRESPORTS™