An Improv Musical, a Search for Belonging and a Seance - East to Edinburgh Is Back
Pre-Fringe showcase makes its in-person return at 59E59 Theaters
After a Covid-shrunk reappearance last summer, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe returns at full force and on a pre-pandemic scale this August. Also making its comeback: East to Edinburgh, a smaller showcase that presents 13 of the 3,171 works headed to Scotland for three weeks in repertory.
Running at 59E59 Theaters through July 31, this summer’s East to Edinburgh is an uneven affair. That might go without saying. Just like Ed Fringe itself, the mini-fest is a theatrical grab bag where audiences can only guess at which piece might be worth their time.
I saw three of the 13 works getting their New York moment—each of them messy, flawed, and very charming.
The Elephant in the Room - writer/perf. Priyanka Shetty, dir. Theresa M. Davis
Priyanka Shetty chronicles the culture shock, isolation and racism she faces after quitting her job as a software engineer in India and moving to the U.S. to become an actor. Shetty is an immensely appealing presence, and though Elephant in the Room often succumbs to cliché, it reaches a powerful conclusion once the text finds some specificity.
Elephant starts out blandly with extended observations on cultural differences between India and the United States: over-sensitive Americans, body shaming, even driving on the opposite side of the road all make the list. This section feels a bit rote—as does Shetty’s conflict with her mother, who is devastated by her daughter’s choice of acting over a more stable line of work. However truthful to Shetty’s own life, this is a story we’ve heard before, told in a familiar way.
But when Shetty shifts focus to her time in acting school, the show perks up. Undervalued by closed-minded professors who comment on Shetty’s “otherness” and shove her into bit parts in school productions, Shetty realizes her only chance at success lies in charting her own path. The show builds movingly to this realization—while still allowing room for humor, as when Shetty rehearses her single line in Urinetown over, and over, and over: “MEN IN LABCOATS WITH TEST TUBES WITH STEAM!!”
Continues through July 24th at 59E59, then moves to Edinburgh Aug 4-27.
The Ecstasy of Victoria Woodhull - by Theo Salter, dir. Sean Harris
Victoria Woodhull ran for president in 1872, almost 50 years before women gained the right to vote. She worked as a “magnetic healer,” then ran a brokerage firm, and later founded a newspaper. She was married three times and was an outspoken believer believer in “free love” and sexual liberation.
Her fascinating life is a natural subject for a solo show, but Theo Salter’s play only mines Woodhull’s story for half of what it’s worth. He unnecessarily frames the show as a seance conducted by a present-day clairvoyant, who calls upon Woodhull to enter her body. Neither that contemporary narrator, nor any of the play’s featured spirits (a few other historical figures get a word in) feel very fleshed out.
When the show keeps focus on Woodhull herself, though, it works. Salter writes her as wonderfully blunt and amusingly blasé when she recalls her radical, free-spirited life. The character’s disdain for self-pity helps the play avoid preachiness.
Ashley Ford is superb as Woodhull—sharp-edged and witty, uncompromising and all the more likable for it. She has less of a handle on the show’s other characters—though again, this problem lies more in the script.
Salter strains to fit in every detail from Woodhull’s extraordinary biography, which, along with the contemporary framing, makes for an overstuffed 50 minutes. A narrower focus might instead have been placed on Woodhull’s combative relationship with feminist leaders of the time, for whom Woodhull was too radical to be anything but a political liability. That dynamic is intriguing, but unfortunately gets short shrift.
Continues through July 31st at 59E59, then moves to Edinburgh Aug 5-27.
Trudy Carmichael presents the Improvised One-Woman Show! - by Robin Rothman Taylor & Frank Spitznagel; dir. Sean Taylor
Seeking prompts for her next song, Las Vegas lounge star Trudy Carmichael asked the crowd to yell out a hope they have for the future. Front row center, a gentleman’s hand shot up.
“I’m hoping to get lucky tonight,” he announced.
Since Robin Rothman Taylor not only co-created this Improvised One-Woman Show (with Frank Spitznagel) but also performs as Carmichael, you would imagine that she’s used to some strange crowd responses. But even Taylor seemed briefly flummoxed by that one. 59E59 patrons are a risky bet for any kind of audience involvement.
But Trudy Carmichael really needs that responsive crowd that’s on her wavelength, so this one may work a lot better in Edinburgh than in the stifling black box of Theater C. It’s not an especially deep show—most of Trudy’s improvised songs, performed with Spitznagel on keys and Steve Whyte on drums, were pleasant but vague ditties about “feeling blue” or “pushing on through.”
Still, Taylor’s voice is extraordinary, and it’s undeniably impressive to watch her swiftly and smoothly whittle a whole tune out of thin air. As with Elephant and Ecstasy, the work has its problems, but the talent on display is undeniable.