Jill's PLAF Diary for Monday, September 11

Performance: Twist (Gila Sand) (Future performances).

I had planned to see two shows this evening, but one got cancelled. Probably for the best. One less diary entry to write tonight. And it enabled me to write an email with the subject line "Killer Pussy." So how fun is that?

I'm taking the day off from PLAF tomorrow (I'm working late at my day job), but I'll be returning in style later this week.

Twist
The Philadelphia Theatre Alliance Listserv has been abuzz lately on the topic of criticism. One of the points that's been raised multiple times is that sometimes, criticism can't be blamed on the actors, because sometimes, they're just doing the best with what they've got. So I won't fault the cast of Twist for their microphone problems, their lighting problems, their long scene changes, their lack of costumes for the onstage band... This was opening night, after all. The cast was doing the best with what they had.

Twist is what you get when you cross Oliver! with The Rocky Horror Show. There are definite homages to both; in fact, I was quite excited when Nancy sang her song and a German-sounding waltz accompanied her in the background. Any lover of Oliver! hopefully got the homage to "Oom-Pah-Pah." (The homages to Rocky Horror were a little more obvious.) This is a new work, and that fact could get obvious sometimes: it was laden with double entendres that would probably get scaled back in more polished productions; jokes got tripped over or fell flat; the choreography (especially the ballet) could get a little awkward. But the cast was composed of actors with strong voices (when they weren't having microphone problems), the script was funny, and the band was good (if annoyingly uncostumed.) As creator Gila Sand reminded us at the top of the show, this is a work in progress. And with some polishing, I can see it becoming a local cult fave. It's just not there yet.
Festival rating: Fair to good.