As in all of the most successful shows at the Gaslight Theatre, a
delightful sense of comic anarchy rules over Cronan the
Barbarian.
In this production, set in a vague ancient time, pirates and
Roman-style slave drivers collude; an evil sorceress and a
pure-of-heart princess collide; and parodies of Conan and Xena save the
day in a world peopled by gladiators, thieves, centaurs and an
almost-racist Asian sage.
Over 32 years, the artists behind the Gaslight have developed a
surefire formula for their comedy-musical-melodramas, but some of the
shows feel a little predictable. The Gaslight gives its audience just
what they want—light-hearted, family-friendly
entertainment—no matter whether the result is original or maybe a
little stale.
That said, writer-director Peter Van Slyke, working with the help of
a reliable cast and a creative crew of designers and musicians, has
imbued Cronan with just enough of the zany momentum for which
the Gaslight is known. It’s the most fun I have had at the eastside
theater in many years.
Let’s not spend too much time on the show’s story—which has
something to do with the quest of the evil Queen Vultura of Draconia to
wrest control of the world, Princess Persephone’s beloved Persepolis,
and Cronan the Barbarian’s amorphous fight for freedom. Plot details
are merely devices to facilitate getting from sketch A to joke B to
spit-take C, in castles, villages, temples and wooded glades.
Suffice to say that Todd Thompson strikes heroic pose after heroic
pose as the titular barbarian. Thompson ably parrots the unique accent
of a certain Austrian actor-turned-California governor, but he uses
artistic judgment about when exactly to employ it—mostly during
repeated variations on the nonsensical line, “Listen to me now and hear
me later”—and when to suspend it and simply speak in a generic
Valley Guy dialect.
Thompson also sings well during “Eye of the Tiger,” one of the many
song parodies in a show heavy on 1970s disco and 1980s hair-metal.
Deborah Klingenfus is even better as Princess Persephone, a diminutive
charmer packing a vocal punch on “I Need a Hero.” The other heroic star
is Katherine Byrnes as Zeena, a warrior princess who teams up with
Cronan to fight the baddies and tutor Persephone in the ways of being a
kick-ass chick. Naturally, Byrnes belts out “The Warrior” and “I
Will Survive,” and is disarmingly convincing while doing so.
Many juicy villains populate Cronan, allowing for a veritable
chorus of evil and numerous opportunities for all manner of maniacal
laughter, as well as the attendant booing from the audience. As
Vultura, Sarah Vanek is an especially good cackler, and her multi-hued
fright wig is a vision to behold. David Orley, one of the perennial
gems of the Gaslight, is quite wonderful as Vultura’s gong-happy
adviser, Reptilian. (Or is it Reptilius? The program can’t decide.)
Anyway, Orley works up a righteous sweat singing “Treat Her like a
Lady”—when he’s done, you will believe.
Gaslight stalwarts Joe Cooper, Sean MacArthur, Charlie Hall and,
especially, the multi-talented Mike Yarema add to the collective
insanity.
As usual, Tom Benson’s set design and wizardly effects are
marvelous; often, they’re self-contained jokes—from the magic
talking mirror to a terrific chase scene in the forest to a silly
horizontal climb up a sheer vertical cliff.
There are also lots of interesting fake swords and battleaxes, a
panoply of colorful costumes from different eras, wigs that are almost
characters themselves, and even a falling chandelier exactly like in
The Phantom of the Opera. (Well, not exactly.)
The world-famous Gaslight band—led by the expert Linda
Ackermann at the piano, and aided by longtime cohorts Rich Brennion on
guitar and Jon Westfall on drums—works hard but hardly shows it,
keeping the show and the tunes flowing.
Nancy La Viola’s choreography is minimal when a performer is a doing
a solo number, but the group pieces—including one in which the
whole cast, friends and enemies alike, throws down together—are
groovy fun.
Speaking of groovy, the post-show olio is a re-creation of The
Tonight Show, circa 1970, with Yarema as a spot-on Johnny Carson,
and Orley hilarious as a blubbering Ed McMahon. Thompson and MacArthur
nail The Smothers Brothers, while Cooper and Byrnes tackle Sonny and
Cher. Most memorable are Byrnes as Bette Midler and Klingenfus as Dolly
Parton.
If you like Thompson and Klingenfus, each has a solo show planned.
Standards, country and the music of Broadway will fill “An Acoustic
Evening With Todd Thompson” on Monday, Sept. 7. And you can catch
“Sugartime: An Evening with Deborah Klingenfus” on Monday, Sept. 14,
during which the singer will perform material from the golden age of
American popular music. Both shows start at 7 p.m. in the auditorium at
the Gaslight.
This article appears in Sep 3-9, 2009.
