Wacky Late Night Theater Antics!

Serial Killers! Sacred Fools Theater. 2/28/2009.

Almost randomly, my roommate and I found ourselves at Sacred Fools Theater tonight for Serial Killers, a late night theater smackdown in which a plethora of actors perform five ten(ish)-minute plays in a madcap fashion, and then the audience votes which 3 serials continue in the next installment. There was a wide range of skill and style in both the plays themselves and the actors performing them, but there was a ton of wacky fun regardless of petty notions like "quality" and "logic." There were inside jokes, crazy nicknames, outlandish concepts, and musical numbers! What more could you ask for in a night of theater?

As an audience, we witnessed:

"Hi Hun, I'm Home!" by Anna Baardsen and Ari Radousky, a sitcom in which Attila the Hun seems to be the patriarch and Mr. Mom of a contemporary American family. It's a fabulous concept, and I totally would have loved to see more, but the episode we watched felt like a conclusion and the audience voted it out.

"The Pembridge Place Panic: A True Story" by Sean Sweeney, a campy horror story about a couple moving into a haunted house, then hiring a TV show host and his crew to investigate the mysterious phenomena. As far as I was concerned, this show starred Michael Holmes' (I think, I wasn't so clear on which character and actor were which) eyebrows, which were awesome.

"The Nitro Hour" by JJ Mayes, a variety show hosted by incompetent hosts. It didn't have much of a plot and seemed mostly to be inside jokes. But Chairman Barnes' announcer voice was awesome! This will not be making it to episode two.

"A Cat Wrote This Play!" by Padriac Duffy, an absurdist romp through a cat's stream of consciousness as imagined by a human playing a cat. This made no sense whatsoever, but it was both charming and hilarious nonetheless. It will be continuing on to episode 6, and deservedly so.

"Seamen! The Musical!" by Joe Jordan, a musical about men on a ship who just happen to like to dance. This was by far my favorite, even though nothing really happened and it may have just been an excuse to make gay jokes. This show was delightfully retro (sort of On the Town meets The Village People) and will continue on to episode 5!

The next installment isn't until March 28, and I may be tempted to go again. And apparently they're doing a playoff between the longest running serials of the year in May and June, which sounds fabulous! Anyway, I totally recommend Serial Killers as rousing theatrical good times where nothing matters as much as a good (usually dirty) joke. This is one of those shows that reminds me why I love theater and theater folks so much, and it's definitely worth the ($7) price of admission.

Now, all I need is a queer version of this. Basically, I wish I could be in New York to see Room for Cream at La MaMa. It sounds awesome.