Uprisings, sassy utterances and insurrections are onstage at several Cincinnati theaters. The Revolutionists at the Cincinnati Playhouse and Avenue Q at the Incline Theater both evoke laughs, but their approaches and intentions are very different.
The Playhouse continues to give women their due, with a second 2016 world premiere by a female playwright. Lauren Gunderson’s new script, The Revolutionists, commissioned by the Playhouse, is the best show presented at the Mount Adams theater this season. The scintillating script, packed with provocative ideas, is about women who are writers, activists and public figures who lived (and died) during the French Revolution’s “Reign of Terror” — deposed Queen Marie Antoinette (Jessica Lynn Carroll), young assassin Charlotte Corday (Keira Keeley) and playwright Olympe de Gouges (Lise Bruneau). The fourth, Marianne Angelle (Kenita R. Miller), is a woman of color from the Caribbean Island of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti), in France to advance the cause of liberty.
Of course, they never actually met in 1793. But Gunderson’s concept has them in spirited interaction, four witty women who fuss with and inspire one another. Each is concerned with history and reputation, and that’s part of Gunderson’s underlying motive — to put women back into history, which tends to focus on what the men have done and undone.
These women speak in very 21st-century terms, casual and self-aware, although they’re dressed in 18th-century attire, hanging out in an exquisite Empire drawing room. The contrast between their historical existence and their modern utterances and attitudes often drives the humor.
As the self-indulgent queen, Carroll steals most every scene, waltzing in wearing sunglasses and proclaiming, “I’m so famous.” Keeley’s badass Charlotte, with a steak knife strapped to her thigh to murder radical journalist Marat, is a comically blunt attention-grabber. Miller’s sensible Marianne is the play’s rational anchor, full of feeling and common sense. As Olympe, Bruneau has the most complex role as narrator and creator. She nicely captures her character’s second thoughts, doubts and desires; Olympe’s sharp intellect frames the show’s action.
Gunderson’s underlying message is that audiences represent the future that will keep history flowing, informed by the banter of these powerful, smart, motivated women. (Read a full review here.)
• The revolution on Avenue Q is of a different nature altogether, although it is perhaps just as subversive. This musical, a Tony winner on Broadway in 2004, takes its inspiration and method from Sesame Street, puppets and all, but it’s tainted with a strong off-color dose of contemporary sarcasm. The PBS show told kids they could do anything if they tried hard; Avenue Q turns that notion upside down, positing that life sucks.
About half the characters in Avenue Q are puppets, with their operators in plain view. The approach works, and before long you don’t really notice the puppeteers. Cincinnati Landmark Productions has assembled an able cast of singers and actors who do a good job of bringing the mouthy puppets to life.
The central character of Princeton, a recent college grad (an English major, in fact) who’s in failure-to-launch mode, is handled by Brian Berendts, who also enlivens Rod, an uptight Republican investment banker who refuses to admit he’s gay. Watching Berendts switch back and forth is entertaining. Alyson Snyder has to do the same as Princeton’s possible girlfriend, Kate Monster, and the neighborhood bad girl, Lucy the Slut. A fine and varied singer, Snyder ably flips the switch between Kate’s naïve innocence and Lucy’s lascivious come-hither ways, often in the same scene.
After 12 years, some of Avenue Q’s humor is wearing thin. Tatiana Godfrey plays “Gary Coleman,” a role that was amusing a decade ago, poking fun at the Diff’rent Strokes actor. But with his death in 2010, the laughs are forced, and many jokes just don’t make sense if you can’t recall TV from the early ’80s.
That being said, on opening night at the Incline, Avenue Q evoked giggles and guffaws from the audience with its rude and crude songs, including “The Internet is for Porn.” A lot of fun, but leave the kids at home.
THE REVOLUTIONISTS continues through March 6 at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. AVENUE Q, at the Warsaw Federal Incline Theater, is also onstage through March 6.
This article appears in Feb 24 – Mar 2, 2016.
