The Annoyance Theatre and Bar - Reviews
RECOMMENDED
"Kinda schlocky. Kinda brilliant. Totally fun. That’s “40 Whacks,” the new show from the Annoyance Theatre. It’s based upon the infamous Lizzie Borden murder case and trial from the late nineteenth century, and this original work, by writer Aggie Hewitt and director Irene Marquette, with musical direction by Lisa McQueen, appropriates something between a melodramatic play and an old-fashioned musical, between the “dark comedy” that the folks at the Annoyance are calling it, and an improvisational romp for which the Annoyance (I think) is known (“40 Whacks” is the first show I’ve seen by this company).
On opening night, Hewitt and Marquette took the stage to deliver the customary thank-yous to collaborators and supporters. What struck me, however, was how charming, down-to-earth and genuinely grateful these artists seemed, the kind of young ladies with whom you could see yourself sharing a drink and a devilishly good and smart conversation. It’s that sense of fun, accessibility and beguilement that allows “40 Whacks” to be so good in spite of itself. Because as a play, the story is perfunctory at best; I don’t think I walked out knowing anything more about Lizzie Borden than I did walking in, something that had been limited to the catchy rhyme, “Lizzie Borden had an axe/And gave her mother forty whacks/When she saw what she had done/She gave her father forty-one.” There’s an underdeveloped romantic subplot involving Lizzie’s uncle and an Irish maid. And the second act court sequence is less about the actual Lizzie Borden case than it is any famous person who has ever stood trial and walked free thanks to celebrity razzmatazz, media distortion and courtroom theatrics.
As a musical, there’s a smart number that gives some historical flavor to the piece (“It’s Great To Be Men in the 1890s”) but does little else for the musical as a whole. One of the most entertaining numbers, a 1970s easy-listening piece of glorious schmaltz with wicked 1980s programmed drums, is given to a secondary character, Lizzie’s stepmother (which comedienne Jennifer Estlin nonetheless transforms into a histrionic solo of Celine Dion epic proportion). And Lizzie’s only memorable number (“This is the Second Floor of the Borden House”) is not a strong character-defining ballad but instead a clever tongue-twister-of-a-patter song with accelerating tempo that brings to mind “Getting Married Today” from “Company.” Like most of McQueen’s songs, it appeals to the brain more than it does the ears, something that’s exacerbated by the fact that nobody in the cast can really sing, not that this “musical comedy” would be as much fun if it were sung by professional singers. Indeed, the lack of natural singing ability, the spoken rather than sung approach to some of the numbers, the lack of singers’ pitch, the fact that the music only really sounds good when multiple voices blend and compensate for one another, is part of the show’s musically sloppy charm, imbuing it with the same spirit that makes good-bad karaoke so much fun to watch.
Somehow, though, everything comes together. McQueen maintains just the right light comic tone throughout, despite the strange mix of macabre subject matter, tongue-in-cheek acting and good-to-just-okay singing. In the title role, Ellen Stoneking gives a complex and hysterically dark comic performance. With a sweetly sadistic gravitas, and playing a character facing the same demons all ladies past a certain age still living at home must face, Stoneking is as brilliant with this material as Amy Sedaris was with “Strangers with Candy.” As her father, actor Noah Gregoropolous, with his strapping presence, silver white/blond tousled locks, blue eyes and New England “Paaark the caaar and go to Haarvard” accent, is the late Ted Kennedy reincarnate and commands countless guffaws from just speaking his lines. Cristin McAlister does a nice job playing both Lizzie’s unhappy and constantly bitching sister and a Fosse-slinking defense attorney (a courtroom sequence is clearly a musical and visual nod to Kander and Ebb’s 1975 “Chicago”). And the rest of the cast, Chelsea Farmer, Mike Matlz and Sherman Edwards all have their moments. McQueen’s underscoring for the book scenes provides some terrific and haunting atmosphere for the piece, and the highest compliment I can give her score—quirky here, pastichey there, complex and colorful—is that it’s the kind of musical score that Sufjan Stevens might have written. (Fabrizio O. Almeida)
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Recommended
This latest in Annoyance Theatre's long line of outrageous musicals trades the company's usual comic sledgehammer for keener implements of destruction. Aggie Hewitt's hilarious take on the legendary Lizzy Borden parricide forgoes raunch and easy laughs, bubbling instead with smart dialogue and stranger-than-fiction historical curiosities, while Lisa McQueen's solid music bolsters the story with quirky charm. As Lizzie, Ellen Stoneking has a convincing gleam of subdued insanity in her eyes. Cohesion gives way to a flurry of uneven vignettes during the hallucinatory second-act murder trial, but the show saves itself by resurrecting the butchered parents (Jennifer Estlin and Noah Gregoropoulos) in brief, excellent cameos. --Keith Griffith
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reviewed by Paige Listerud
"Just who is Lizzie Borden to the average person today—a reclaimed feminist icon from the 19th-century or a poor little rich girl gone really, really bad? Lisa McQueen (music and lyrics) and Aggie Hewitt (book and lyrics) get to have it both ways with their masterful musical comedy 40 Whacks, now playing Fridays at the Annoyance Theatre. Truth to tell, Lizzie (Ellen Stoneking) wins audience applause at the end of the show because – after a wild ride of mayhem and mistrial – she gets away with it all.
Irene Marquette directs a cunning comidic cast, who lay it all on the line about the good ol’, bad ol’ days surrounding this murder, America’s sordid Gilded Age. Even if Lizzie is no feminist heroine—largely because the glass ceiling she bumps into is about sharing part of her inheritance with her stepmother, Abby (Jennifer Estlin)—the show is, nevertheless, very conscious about the limitations women faced in the 1892, in and out of marriage. Lizzie’s father, Andrew Borden (Noah Gregoropolous), gets thoroughly hosed in the script as the Borden family’s patriarchal douche bag. But Gregoropolous’s dry, deadpan pronouncements on women’s menstrual cycles and mental states make us wish he wasn’t off to see his maker so quickly.
What amazes most about this production is its restraint. Marquette has adhered to a little more class and period consciousness than one usually sees in Annoyance productions. Higher production values in scenic design and costuming, coupled with hints of ragtime in McQueen’s musical score, give the audience a stronger sense of old-timey mass murder–all the better with which to sail into the production’s more off-the-wall, anachronistic moments. After a steady diet of arsenic poisoning and a failed attempt at getting medical help, Abby starts to make Uncle John’s (Mike Maltz) bed on the second floor. We know that her mortal comeuppance at Lizzie’s hands is imminent. However, Abby still gets a glorious swansong before her demise, covering the Carpenters’ 1972 hit “I’ll say goodbye to love.”
That’s not the end to this show’s imaginative flights of fancy. The cast knows how to pour it on for Lizzie’s trial, which Lizzie gets to observe through nothing less than a court-ordered morphine haze. Maltz is charming as Uncle John Morse–what with his little crush on the family Irish maid Bridget (Chelsea Farmer)–but he really excels at delivering the trippy, whacked out opening remarks as the prosecuting attorney. Cristin McAlister, demurely spoiled and vindictive as Lizzie’s sister Emma, really gets to step out and shake it as Lizzie’s defense. Sherman Edwards, as the casual and celebrity conscious judge overseeing trial proceedings, seals the circus for what it is. “Will you be dignified and respectful of the court system?” he mildly asks of the audience before Lizzie arrives. His understated delivery already informs us we need not be.
What seals the deal for this show is its excellent music. There are times when the score strays into operetta territory and that’s when I begin to ask whether the producers have created something a little beyond Annoyance’s typical schlock comedy fare. 40 Whacks definitely delivers more sophistication, while keeping a light, crude touch to get across Lizzie’s overwhelming sense of entitlement. I, of course, am screaming for more and I hope Annoyance’s audiences will too."
reviewed by Barry Eitel
"When thinking up subjects for a screwball musical extravaganza, it’s rare that one explores topics over a century old. Most of them have pretty clearly expired. The Spanish-American War. The Klondike Gold Rush. Thomas Edison. Not a whole lot of reliability.
Risking staleness didn’t daunt Annoyance Theatre in their decision to produce 40 Whacks, a musical focusing on Lizzie Borden, the infamous axe-wielder of patricide and nursery rhyme fame. Directed by Irene Marquette and with a book by Aggie Hewitt, this sketch-ish show bravely eschews contemporary-ness for Victorian-style laughs, and they no doubt came up with something that is as funny now as if it came out in the Gay Nineties.
In case you aren’t old enough to know how to cakewalk (or your mother never sang lullabies about murder), Lizzie Borden was convicted of brutally hacking apart her father and stepmother, Andrew and Abby Borden, in 1892. She was acquitted for lack of evidence, but found guilty in the court of public opinion. Her notoriety lives on in children’s rhymes (“Lizzie Borden took an axe/ And gave her mother 40 whacks…”), as well as operas and plays such as Lizzie Borden: A Tragedy in Two Axe (which, debatably, has the best title ever).
showposter40 Whacks doesn’t just sit in its late 19th-century time period. There’s plenty of updating going on. This Lizzie Borden (the vengeful Ellen Stoneking) speaks in modern parlance, using some choice words to describe her stepmother (Jennifer Estlin). Hewitt brings some deconstruction to the table as well. The courtroom scene spoofs such theatre heavyweights as Bob Fosse and Sophie Treadwell.
I wouldn’t say Annoyance has gone all socio-political on us, but we’re obviously looking at this tale through a feminist lens. This has its hits and misses. “It’s Great to be Men in the 1890s,” a duet between Lizzie’s father and uncle (Noah Gregoropolous and Mike Maltz, respectively), is probably the best song in the show. The tune is hilariously self-reflexive, blending just the right amounts of cleverness and stupidity. Other times the post-modern commentary is overwrought, e.g. the family’s constant berating of Abby.
There’s a fun, elementary-school-recital aesthetic to Lisa McQueen’s score, which features a single upright with a little synth thrown in for maximum cheesiness. However, even when putting up a parody musical that encourages heavy drinking, the cast still needs singing ability. While the cast here gets by, their lack of comfort with the music does distract. Stoneking fakes any unease well enough. But Cristin McAlister, who gives a Cabaret-style ditty as Lizzie’s lawyer, is visibly uncomfortable. So is Chelsea Farmer as the Borden’s maid. She sings her testimony in the style of Brecht/Weill (according to the program). As a Brecht fanboy, I couldn’t really hear Herr Alienation in the song, which wasn’t really funny nor compelling. McQueen’s music bounces past the occasional sour spots and keeps everything rolling along. And Estlin’s commanding ballad in act one deserves a mention for its Bonnie Tyler level of passion.
The cast seemed to be on-book for the second act, making me wonder if the piece was under-rehearsed. If this is the case, I’m guessing the whole musical will improve with future performances.
40 Whacks was my first experience with Annoyance and their so-bad-its-great mindset. This especially came across in a short improv segment, which was actually really fun in its open-mic night lameness. The show was a great introduction. Through the musical’s successes and duds, it remains quirky, fast-paced, and fun. Not many can mine humor from notorious murders of the 19th-Century, so Marquette, Hewitt, and cast should pat themselves on the back."
The Annoyance Theatre and Bar - Reviews
"Though he's done it over and over again at Second City, Annoyance
Theatre founder Mick Napier has never directed a sketch show on his own
home turf. Consider the drought broken with the pleasurably perverse
Swear Jar--a Second City-style revue without the content restrictions.
The material can be frustrating. There are softballs (an attack on the
snootiness of Trader Joe's), and there's filth that feels gratuitous
(the final run of scenes is pretty much exclusively about cunnilingus).
But most of the bits--irreverent journeys through cancer, menstruation,
Men's Wearhouse, and "early '90s malls"--twist and turn nicely. A
supremely committed cast led by screwball Chris Witaske brings warmth
to this darkly funny show. --Steve Heisler
"Swear Jar, the first sketch comedy show at the Annoyance to be
directed by its founder Mick Napier, plays like a traditional Second
City sketch revue with one exception: At a Second City show, characters
don’t sodomize a gear shift in attempt to achieve “total clarity.” Come
to think of it, we’ve never seen a mainstage show in which a pubescent
girl wipes her menstrual blood on a bichon frise, nor does the e.t.c.
ever touch upon getting finger blasted in the back of a Things
Remembered. Then again, the Annoyance doesn’t have to worry about
pleasing red state tourists and prom groups from Orland Park. As a
result, Swear Jar is a very funny show and a return to form for Napier
who’s concurrent revue at the Second City mainstage, Taming of the Flu,
lacks bite.
Call Swear Jar the John Waters version of a Second City revue, and the
further the ensemble, who are clearly off-of-their-rockers and loving
it, pushes the envelope, the better it gets. In one scene, two lesbian
mommies equitably disperse their love amongst their melange of
interracial children, including one who bursts suddenly out of a coma.
In another, a chipper bagger at Trader Joe’s finally cracks under
pressure. Two seniors celebrate their 50th anniversary by reminiscing
about murdering their first-born child in one particularly funny sketch
and in another, Damien, a pussy guru, offers love advice.
Much of the ensemble is doing fantastic work here. In one musical
number, early nineties mall culture is spoofed (including jabs at
Clinton-era fixtures like the Chess King and Z. Cavaricci). During a
break in the music, one crestfallen teen delivers a monologue about his
own suicide as the rest of the ensemble looks on with glazed eyes. But
watch how the very funny Chris Witaske reacts to the guy’s every word
with a mixture of shock and pity. Ditto Colleen Murray and Brian Wilson
who engage in a Virgina Woolf-style meltdown with total abandon. It’s
awesome stuff. Aidy Bryant chalks of a handful of memorable moments of
her own, including the aforementioned scene in which she plays a tween
with a “flow” problem.
But for all Napier’s handiwork in getting his eight-person ensemble
(note the gender equity among the cast) to go for the gusto, the show
could use a bit of trimming. Swear Jar clocks in at two hours. It’s too
much. A handful of sketches just aren’t worthy. For example, a scene in
which a robbery victim turns the tables on his recalcitrant attacker,
felt a bit like the kind of newbie shtick we’d see straight out of a
level five writing program. Ditto a recurring sketch titled, “Honest
Moments in Presidential History.” Even some of the finer work here ends
on the most awkward and head-scratching moments. What gives?
Nevertheless, the best material in Swear Jar makes for an intelligent,
rip-roaring showcase that takes the Second City-style revue and gives
it a perverted, giddy twist. Mick Napier’s formidable talents here
recalls the kind of daring sketch he was directing in shows like
Paradigm Lost some 15 years ago and for the most part, it’s a happy
reunion."Read
more
"The dissident style of “Swear Jar” is a breath of fresh air in a
comedic world filled with stale political and healthcare jokes. Imagine
an uncensored Second City-style revue with the added bonus of a beer
bar only a few feet away from your seat. That’s what you get with this
show. To put it simply, it’s crude and experimental comedy at its
finest and frankly you’re not going to find a funnier bang for your
buck.
Mick Napier, founder and Artistic Director of the The Annoyance
Theatre, birthed this unrestricted tour de force which happens to also
mark the first sketch show he has directed for his own company in its
22 year history. Napier’s resume is impressive and includes highlights
like directing David Sedaris’ “One Woman Shoe” and Chicago’s longest
running musical “Co-Ed Prison Sluts.” With a man of his caliber in the
director’s seat, you know you’re in for a satisfying evening. For the
last week I have been trying to find the right words to express my love
for Napier’s “Swear Jar.” It’s a delightfully filthy experience thanks
to its talented screwball cast and Lisa McQueen’s ever so witty musical
numbers that included homage to the sheer joy only bulimia can bring
and the nostalgia of early 90’s mall culture. As a whole, the show is
raunchy, dark and pleasantly demoralizing. It opens with a quick jab at
the snootiness of Trader Joe’s before travelling down a classless
rabbit hole. Along the way, the audience is graced with explicit yet
hilarious sketches about menstruation, cunnilingus and even being able
to find clarity with a plunger or an impromptu gearshift stuck up your
ass. This is the type of show that pushes the envelope and delivers
laugh after laugh through deviant perversion.
The cast (Vanessa Bayer, Aidy Bryant. Angela Dawe, Colleen Murray,
Andrew Peyton, Connor O’Malley, Brian Wilson and Chris Witaske) creates
a dynamic powerhouse with undeniable standout performances from Vanessa
Bayer, Aidy Bryant, Andrew Peyton and Chris Witaske. It is hard to pick
a favorite but I have a feeling Mr. Witaske will become a big name in
the sketch comedy world. His stage presence is captivating which makes
him a standout even when he’s isn’t center stage. The only criticism I
can give can also be applied to most sketch comedy shows. “Swear Jar,”
at times, suffers from its lack of continuity. The performance can seem
a little choppy as they bounce from one sketch to the next. This might
be alleviated if they end some of the sketches before they run out of
steam and hit an ill at ease conclusion. One might accuse “Swear Jar”
of using shock value to stimulate the audience rather than garnering
actual laughter. That wasn’t the case for me but be forewarned the
content of the show is rather vulgar. Overall, I found it to be a riot
and as my friend put it, “funnier than anything I’ve seen on SNL in
years.” “Swear Jar” runs every Saturday night at 10:00pm through May
1st. Tickets are a steal at $15 and can be purchased at The Annoyance
Theatre website, theannoyance.com, or by calling the box office at
(773) 561-HONK."
"In the Annoyance Theatre's latest goofball musical it's New Year's Eve, 1928, and a cross section of Jazz Age types has gathered to celebrate the opening of a glamorous Chicago pleasure palace, hubristically billed as "the world's first unburnable hotel." The guests include a rakish con man, a Chaplinesque movie star, a dizzy dame fresh from the sticks, and the hard-boiled wife of a ticker tape magnate. Naturally, the building catches on fire, but our plucky, empty-headed crew isn't going to let a little thing like impending immolation destroy their good time. Director Dunbar Dicks, composer Sean Sykes, and the cast create a charming pastiche of old-fashioned musical comedy. But the show's one-joke premise--that nobody recognizes the severity of the situation--eventually wears thin." --Zac Thompson
"...this funny show was significant in the development of Chicago comedy. And it's good to see it back, replete with some original cast members looking much the same Older, yes. Classier, no. Huzzah!"
"...a filthy, sometimes depraved, musical with real heart... It succeeds in shocking with one line and charming with the next." -Mathew Rose
-fringereport.com
reviews-smallvictories.inc
"Kristen Studard's "unflattering vanity project" presents wacky, often hilarious characters with unique stories to tell. We meet Shirley, a video-blogging Girl Scout with an over-the-top sense of melodrama; a Hungry Hungry Hippo who's sick of eating little white balls; and multiple household objects just itching to sing their sorrows. Well structured and thoughtfully directed by Kate Duffy, this production is a fun vehicle for Studard's versatile comedy. Whether she's stuffing her face with marshmallows or bringing to life a flower's inner monologue, Studard's wit and excellent timing shine through. The show's best moments--such as a brief coming-of-age sketch featuring speaking roles for Studard's three outdated forms of identification--are improvised" --Marissa Oberlander
reviews-edgeandback.inc
"Tyler Patocka shines as a disgruntled barkeep..."- Kerry Reid
"...will surely be the hottest improv show in town and costs a mere
five bucks. Assertive, vulnerable, eloquent, acerbic and ---most
important---complicated, Messing is a colossal talent."
