Saturday, September 17, 2011

Quick Hit Theater Review: Dally with the Devil

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Elizabeth Norment, Elizabeth A. Davis and Erika Rolfsrud . Photo by Jon Kandel
Dally with the Devil
By Victor L Cahn
Directed by Eric Parness

Summary:
Everything seems so peaceful on oceanfront patio of the Cape Cod home (Jisun Kim, set design). A perfect place for Charlotte (Erika Rolfsrud), a partner in the controversial political blog Demon.com to relax when she's not taking down the next corrupt politician. Two visitors bring a wave of unrest, however. Charlotte's old professor, Irene (Elizabeth Norment), now a campaign advisor in a Senate race, drops some disparaging information about her man's conservative opponent. It seems he might not be the big war hero everyone thinks. Charlotte, full of journalistic integrity, isn't so quick to bite. She won't run anything without a full investigation. While she is digging, she gets a visit from Megan (Elizabeth A. Davis),  an advisor for the conservative candidate. When her pleas for Charlotte to drop the investigation fail, she fires back with some allegations about Irene. Just how far will Charlotte go in her quest to print the truth, and will she stop when she suddenly finds herself the target of some political ammunition being fired by both sides?

Highlights:
A nice look at the anatomy of the behind-the-scenes in a political race with pretty even-handed treatment for all points of view. The three actresses do a nice job portraying their characters and interacting with each other in a realistic way. Brisk paced 90 minutes.

Lowlights:
Some of the dialogue sounds contrived to provide exposition and there's a touch of stereotyping when it comes to the conservative candidate and his spokesperson (Megan is perceived as stupid; there's the inevitable "hiding the true gay self" that seems to be part of many conservative characters portrayed on stage), but neither is  too distracting from the interesting plot.

Christians might also like to know:
God's name taken in vain

More information:
The show runs through Oct. 8 at Off-Broadway's Beckett Theatre, 410 West 42nd St., NYC. Tickets are available by calling 212-239-6200 or by visiting www.DallyWithTheDevil.com.
Posted by Lauren Yarger at 10:09 AM

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My Bio

Lauren Yarger is Executive Director/Producer with Masterwork Productions, Inc. She has written, directed and produced numerous shows and special events for both secular and Christian audiences. She co-wrote a Christian musical version of “A Christmas Carol” which played to sold-out audiences of over 3,000 in Vermont and was awarded the 2000 Vermont Bessie (theater and film awards) for “People’s Choice for Theatre.” She also has written two other dinner theaters, sketches for church services and devotions for Christian artists.

Yarger trained for three years in the Broadway League’s Producer Development Program, completed the Commercial Theater Institute's Producing Three-Day Training and produced a one-woman musical about Mary Magdalene that toured nationally and closed with an off-Broadway run.

In 2008 she was a Fellow at the National Critics Institute at the O'Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT. She writes reviews of Broadway and off-Broadway theater with a Christian perspective for Masterwork Productions (http://reflectionsinthelight.blogspot.com/) and is Connecticut theater editor for CurtainUp http://www.curtainup.com/, a national theater web site based in New York and editor of The Connecticut Arts Connection, an online source for news and reviews (http://ctarts.blogspot.com/).

She also worked in arts management for The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford and for the Hartford Symphony Orchestra.

Yarger writes news and inspiration for Christian artists at http://christianpeformers.blogspot.com/ and teaches theater workshops at conferences around the country.

She is a freelance writer and member of The Drama Desk, The Outer Critics Circle, The American Theater Critics Association, the Society of Professional Journalists, the CT Press Club, the National Book Critics Circle, the Connecticut SPJ, the Connecticut Critics Circle and Christians in Theatre Arts.

A former newspaper editor and graduate of the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, Yarger lives with her husband in West Granby, CT. They have two adult children.

Copyright

All material is copyright 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 by Lauren Yarger. Reviews and articles may not be reprinted without permission. Contact reflectionsinthelight@gmail.com

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Key to Content Notes:

God's name taken in vain -- means God or Jesus is used in dialogue without speaking directly to or about them.
Language -- means some curse words are used. "Minor" usually means the words are not too strong or that it only occurs once or twice throughout the show.
Strong Language -- means some of the more heavy duty curse words are used.
Nudity -- means a man or woman's backside, a man's lower front or a woman's front are revealed.
Scantily clad -- means actors' private areas are technically covered, but I can see a lot of them.
Sexual Language -- means the dialogue contains sexually explicit language but there's no action.
Sexual Activity -- means a man and woman are performing sexual acts.
Adultery -- Means a married man or woman is involved sexually with someone besides their spouse. If this is depicted with sexual acts on stage, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.
Sex Outside of Marriage -- means a man and woman are involved sexually without being married. If this is depicted sexually on stage, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.
Homosexuality -- means this is in the show, but not physically depicted.
Homosexual activity -- means two persons of the same sex are embracing/kissing. If they do more than that, the list would include "sexual activity" as well.
Cross Dresser -- Means someone is dressing as the opposite sex. If they do more than that on stage the listing would include the corresponding "sexual activity" and/or "homosexual activity" as well.
Cross Gender -- A man is playing a female part or a woman is playing a man's part.
Suggestive Dancing -- means dancing contains sexually suggestive moves.

Other content matters such as torture, suicide or rape will be noted, with details revealed only as necessary in the review itself.

The term "throughout" added to any of the above means it happens many times throughout the show.

Our Reviewing Policy

Our reviewer Lauren Yarger receives free tickets to Broadway and Off-Broadway shows made available to all voting members of the Outer Critics Circle and The Drama Desk, the two professional critics organizations with journalists covering NY theater. Journalistically, she provides an unbiased review and is under no obligation to make positive statements. Sometimes shows do not make tickets available to reviewers. If these are shows our readers want to know about (we review all Broadway shows and pertinent Off-Broadway shows), Masterworks purchases a ticket.

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