Sunday, August 19, 2007

More Fringe: A Beautiful Child and Angst: The New Teen Musical

More entertainment from the New York International Fringe Festival:

A Beautiful Child: Of all the Fringe offerings I've seen so far, this short and sweet tale of Truman Capote and Marilyn Monroe conversing throughout New York City is the one most likely to have life beyond the festival. Polished, well written, directed smartly to showcase its talented actors, A Beautiful Child delightfully delivers snark and heartbreak in the voice of the still-relevant Capote. The dialogue crackles and sparks between the two icons, each played with delicious originality and non-caricature by Joel Van Liew and Maura Lisabeth Malloy. My only complaint is that this too-quick glimpse into fame and folly lasted but a brief 50 minutes. More, please?

Angst: The New Teen Musical: Well, New York Magazine agrees with me. Angst: The New Teen Musical is, like, totally awesome. It features a MySpace obsessed narrator's observations of his classmates, each a classic, conflicted teen with [insert sex, drugs, identity, isolation here] issues. We all know that Disney cookie cutter high schoolers don't exist, and this cast kicks that to the curb without being too, you know, overdramatic and sulky. Featuring a rousing rock-and-roll score by an unbelievably talented Eric Mayson and gifted performances by him and the rest of the teenaged cast, the show is a spot-on microcosm of current high school life. Spring Awakening, beware!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The "Angst" score and songs were written by Eric Mayson, not Tom Olson. Mayson is the actor/musician who plays the character Tom Olson in "Angst."

I agree that he's unbelievably talented. Mayson also plays the keyboard, guitar, and bass on the soundtrack used in production along with drummer David Belt, who played Joe Kenwood in the production.

Mary Hilton said...

Thanks for the comment - that has been corrected in the post. All the cast are amazingly talented and I hope more people see the show. Great review in New York mag also.