By: Darryl Reilly
“Barbara, be sure to!”, an immortal Mommie Dearest quote provides down the household when sent as a throwaway line throughout co-playwrights Marc Castle and Mark Finley’s uproarious classic display organization spoof, Fatal Phases abundant All About Eve references fused with film noir tropes encourage 90 minutes of merriment. Mr. Castle and Mr. Finley fondly and comprehensively distill the themes, components and plot points of common motion pictures for their wild situation which is fueled by deliciously perfectly-crafted hardboiled dialogue, for an exhilarating camp fest. Bygone Transatlantic accents and Cowardesque clipped cadences marvelously recall the entire world of yesteryear authentic theater most of the dynamic forged enjoy several inventory roles.
It is 1955, and we are in the Broadway theater dressing home of the acclaimed and aging histrionic diva Veronica Traymore her hottest stage automobile Youthful and Fatal, has flopped and is closing that night following only 37 performances. The humbling position of a German mom reuniting with her estranged adult daughter in an and future playwright’s new opus, Sins of the Flesh, is to be Veronica’s next demonstrate just before her meant retirement. Rehearsals with Veronica’s movie star co-star are rocky, there is pressure among Veronica and her loafer shortly to be ex-partner and Sins of the Flesh tries out in New Haven murders are fully commited alongside the way.
![](https://s-geki.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/1711725792_676_Deadly-Stages-Emerging-Artists-Theatre.jpg)
Clad in that era’s major lady-fashion fashions, putting on a fiery crimson wig and evoking Tallulah Bankhead’s grandeur, co-writer Castle gloriously portrays Veronica Traymore. No matter whether grandly croaking out retorts, stumbling about after using a sedative or overreacting when in jeopardy, Castle vocally, bodily and visually achieves a supreme comic functionality. Attract Wigs founder Tamika Scriven’s eye-catching hair design is integral to the presentation’s wacky sophistication.
![](https://s-geki.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/1711725792_739_Deadly-Stages-Emerging-Artists-Theatre.jpg)
Eve Harrington has died in Hollywood and her assistant Phoebe (she goes only by her to start with identify, like Cantinflas) has returned to New York. She will get a occupation as Veronica’s assistant and later on, on short discover substitutes for Veronica’s missing co-star in Sins of the Flesh she knows all the play’s traces. The animated and large-eyed Dani Marcus plays Phoebe with riotous deadpan crafty. Ms. Marcus also sparkles as Connie Edison, a Dorothy Kilgallen-kind barracuda Broadway columnist. Participating in Veronica’s salty Irish dresser Dooney, superior-class literary agent Barbara Landis and gauche Hollywood motion picture star Rita Vernon, is the limber, facially shifting and vocally exclusive Ellen Reilly who exquisitely generates these three antic characterizations.
![](https://s-geki.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/1711725792_581_Deadly-Stages-Emerging-Artists-Theatre.jpg)
These kinds of is the amazing versatility of the tall and charismatic Rob Hancock that it seems that Veronica’s caddish English partner Graham Sinclair and her hyper leather-based-jacketed Beatnik-sort co-star Wade Elliott are performed by various actors Mr. Hancock magnificently seems in these various twin roles. Conniving producer Marvin Maxwell, gruff NYPD Detective Joe Colletti and aged ruminative supporting player Frederic “Fritiz” Farley, are vigorously enacted via Tom Galantich’s character performing par excellence which stirs recollections of C. Aubrey Smith and James Gleason. The sunny David Leeper conveys requisite passionate allure as rising playwright Anthony Arlo, and each and every working day realism in his subsidiary appearances.
A murder victim’s corpse depicted as a creepy lifetime-sized stuffed doll falling from the ceiling and thudding on the floor, is a single of several productive sight gags conceived by director and co-creator Mark Finley. Mr. Finley’s meticulous and brisk actual physical staging lands each and every joke, conjures suspense and sustains a real looking dimension. Most hysterical are the actual physical comedy sequences involving fast alterations for actors switching to a diverse onstage job, and them periodically doing with them selves offstage as two diverse characters. Many locations like the dressing place, a Turtle Bay townhouse’s residing place and theaters’ backstage, are all artfully connoted by scenic designer Courtroom Watson’s arresting pink curtains and specific furnishings, allowing for for swift scene transitions. Mr. Watson’s sensational costume layout replicates the appears of the archetypal monitor figures as we bear in mind them. Lights Designer Zach Pizza is confidently in overdrive veering from muted hues which seize the sheen of the earlier, to atmospheric dimness and gradual blackouts for cinematic result. Composer Morry Campbell’s joyous original music blends acquainted movie melodies with bouncy fresh new compositions in his energetic incidental score.
![](https://s-geki.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/1711725792_163_Deadly-Stages-Emerging-Artists-Theatre.jpg)
On possibly side of the actively playing place are two tv screens which exhibit video designer and director David Leeper’s achieved cheeky retro clips. There are Tv news reports, radio packages, a sendup of Ed Sullivan with an affectionate parody of Shari Lewis and Lamb Chop, and a wicked take off of the celebrity panelist video game demonstrate, What is My Line?, listed here envisioned as Go The Hat. These realizing prospers distinguish Lethal Levels as an ingenious cavalcade of nostalgia wherever the possibility of Vera Charles snatching a purpose from Veronica Traymore incites a burst of viewers laughter.
Deadly Phases (by means of March 16, 2024)
Emerging Artists Theatre in affiliation with No Anita No Productions
Theatre 5 at Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street, in Manhattan
For tickets, stop by www.bfany.org/theatre-row/shows/lethal-phases
Functioning time: 90 minutes with no intermission