Acting Up

Cilicia A. Yakhlef

SCENES FROM A 16 TH STREET MALL

Bovine Metropolis Theater
1527 Champa
303-758-4722

"Scenes from a 16th Street Mall," by The ACME Comedy Players, finishes out the season for Bovine Metropolis Theater. The revue is billed as "sophisticated, silly and absurd," an apt description for just about anything that goes on at Bovine (formerly The Changing Scene Theater).

The fun begins with an episode of "dirty spooning" set to the score from the movie (what else?) Dirty Dancing. The action proceeds to a train-scene discussion of a failed date and just keeps looping the audience through roller coaster rides of intertwined comedic vignettes that wind up neatly stitched together in the end.

Exaggerated satirical stock characters like Girl Scout den mothers, frustrated executives and Springeresque love-muffin girls bring the audience to stitches, but don't steal the limelight from some weighty impersonations, namely the Skipper (and entire crew) of "Gilligan's Island," not to mention a glaring (perhaps it was the teeth) spotlight on Tom Cruise.

Stand-out scenes included a pair of dueling pan-handler guitarists, a blind date bit featuring a guy with a laugh like "a machine gun," a political piece about satellite tracers in Denver workmen's hard-hats, and one of my favorites, a motivational "corporate artist" whose husband (a psychiatrist) explains, "I've been listening to the peaceful, small quiet voice [inside me] and it won't stop talking..." just before he decides to become a human cannonball.

Well-choreographed buffoonery, live instrumentals and comic musical numbers have become a trademark of sorts for the ACME Comedy Players, and this production is no exception. Comedic insights and witticisms also abound. For example, the direct relationship between what a woman eats on the first date and how much she likes the guy she's eating with is explained hilariously. If a girl likes the guy on a first date, she only orders neat foods, and foods with low adhesion factor so as not to have slop running out of her mouth, or gumming up her teeth (thus lowering her sex appeal). If, however, she orders poppyseed anything, or stringy messy food, then it's obvious the guy will never see her again.

Like most Bovine productions, this one also provides some audience interaction, bringing forth tons of laughs and improv opportunities for an already revved up, very talented cast. Eric Mather, Pam Hart, Michael Collins, Michelle Miracle Don Nyal and Carl Wedell give extremely well timed, highly physical performances and manage to do so with the relaxed freshness that improv artists have learned to tap so well.

The show closed December 30, but look for similar blueprints in upcoming performances. "Leggo My Ego" opens in late January. "On the Spot" is showing currently at 11 pm Fridays and Saturdays along with an open-ended run of "Improv Hootenanny" every Monday night. When the theatre's season picks back up again towards the end of this month, call for a standard calendar of shows playing every night of the week. B+