Word: punched
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...cast is the simple yet elegant set, designed by David P. Gordon. All of the parts of the set in Part One are on wheels, allowing free movement and constant variation of the pieces. Most have swinging doors in them, reminiscent of the stages on which the puppets Punch and Judy traditionally perform...
Although most of the humor in Punch and Judy Get Divorced is clean, this musical does have underlying sexual themes. In Part One, the two Pollys (the musical's term for unmarried Judys), played well by Pashalinski and Grate, titter about their sexual exploits in "The Polly Song." Part Two reaches a new level of sexual complexity, as Judy baby's husband runs away from her to be with another man. (Of her husband's male friends who used to come visit, she sings bitterly that they were "envying me and flirting with him" instead of the other way round...
...play begins not with Punch and Judy quibbling, as one might expect, but rather with the Devil (Charles Levin). He runs down an aisle through the audience to the stage, introduces himself as a troublemaker and marriage-breaker, and announces the topic of the show: marriage and relationships. The scene then shifts to Punch 2 (Benjamin Evett) and Judy 2 (Gail Grate), a modern-day couple with a young daughter, "Judy baby" (Alice Playten). (Part of the show's strangeness comes from the fact that most of the characters' names are some variation on Punch and Judy). They argue...
...Beauteeful," which is full of such comic lines as "life do your duty and make me a cutie." Most impressive of all is the next number, "Wanna Be A Man," where from phrase to phrase she alternates between her nasal baby voice (Judy baby) and a deeper chest voice (Punch Jr.). Her consistent differentiation between the two throughout the song is remarkable. Not surprisingly, Playten was just nominated for Philadelphia's Barrymore Award for her performance in this production...
...Punch and Judy Get Divorced has the potential to become very popular; like most good musicals, it has songs that are catchy without being trite, and a few themes that hit home. Satire can be defined as the art of making people laugh while dabbling in touchy subjects, and everyone laughs at this musical. But after they stop laughing, the married people in the audience mumble about how true to life the squabbling is; never-married people vow that their marriages will never be like that. No matter which category you fall into, Punch and Judy Ger Divorced...