Word: demonism
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...current touring production at the Colonial, for example, the tale seems eerily familiar. Wasn't this just the subject of a national uproar? A juvenile, branded a criminal, overcomes unsurmountable obstacles through strength of character to attain ephemeral renown, only to have the dreadful past arise like a demon to snatch it away...
...know, love and lose Ward. Dr. Willet delivers her monologue perched n a loft and as she progresses, lights dawn on Ward in his bookish room. In another corner of the stage, a third figure becomes apparent. Bald and stocky, this figure (John Sharian) represents at various points a demon, Ward's grandfather, and a cyborg. He even barks to out of site vampires. The characters vie for attention in the small, steep theater which only seats 27 people...
...guaranteed to make conservatives growl. "The Bible also says the woman is usually the property of a man. I don't believe that either," Spong declares. "The Bible says homosexual people should be put to death. I don't believe that. The Bible says epilepsy is caused by demon possession. I don't believe that. There are a whole lot of literal concepts out of the Bible that have long ago been abandoned. I'd like to think Christianity is something that would appeal to people who are also well educated and who are modern people...
...Demons succeeds most impressively, and fails most abysmally, for one reason: the acting. Will LeBow, as the demon Murray (a former comic who sold his soul for the chance to headline in a Catskills hotel), is hysterical. Strutting across the stage with an obnoxious yellow suit and a mouth you wouldn't want to take home to Mother, Murray, "a demon with heart palpitations," is cheesiness at its best. LeBow manages to perfectly capture the air and nature of the typical Kutscher's comic. Brustein's script walks an extremely fine line between the deliciously kitchy and the horribly cliched...
Daniel Gerroll, as the uptight Prideau, turns in an adept, if not particularly memorable, performance. Christopher Martin, as the head demon, Alfredo Archangelo Sandiavolo, adequately invokes a devil's personna. Because of this, the first act flies by quite enjoyably...