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Altitude Sickness 1997, Off-Off-Broadway, NY
Review from the Off-Off-Broadway Review (www.oobr.com),
Volume 4, Number 6, Dec. 1997: Written by the cast Review by Adrienne Onofri Altitude Sickness is an original, collaborative
entertainment that defies classification. It has monologues but isn't a solo
show. It has singing and dancing but is only intermittently a musical. And it
has incisive satire and some amusing characterizations and scenarios, but
calling it a comedy neglects the dramatic components. The show is a revue, but
unlike most revues, it has a plot. Altitude Sickness follows five transplants from
Colorado as they adjust to the bright lights and sometimes mean streets of New
York City. Blue Coat Repertory Theatre was, in fact, formed last year by a group
of actors who attended the University of Colorado-Boulder together (director
Sean Ryan Kelley was their professor) and went on to work in the Colorado
Shakespeare Festival. The vivacious performances in Altitude Sickness are
a credit to those two organizations, as they bespeak a maturity and training
that are rare for young Off-Off-Broadway actors. This quirky show could fall
flat if the performers were not so proficient at the many talents their roles
demand-among them, handling comedy and drama, singing, and creating distinctive
personalities. Gina E. Cline played a champagne-company representative
despairing over her unproductive sales territory, her inability to find a
soulmate, and the multitude of homeless people in her neighborhood. Vivian
Manning was an overeager actress trying to make the right connections. Matt Bodo
portrayed a waiter/actor who can't communicate satisfactorily with friends or
lovers. Royden Mills's character lands a job he hates with a boss he hates. And Trent
Dawson played an actor with typical urban anxieties and addictions (coffee,
working out, professional success, etc.). Jason Hauser served as an emcee,
commentator, and multiple-role player. Also in the cast is pianist Fred Baldwin,
who composed the music for the show. The characters' stories unfold and
commingle, not in a sequence of scenes but through a series of sketches,
monologues and songs that might be described as a hybrid of Saturday Night
Live, a Jerry Herman musical, a sitcom, and a serious play. Despite the pop
culture and psychology references and the characters' familiar neuroses, the
material is well-written and doesn't seem trite. And despite a pessimistic tone
toward the end, the play concludes with a cleverly phrased and useful message
about making the most of the hand you're dealt in life. Blue Coat takes the concept of an ensemble show to a new
level with Altitude Sickness. All six actors are identified as creators
of the play, and The Company is also credited with designing the set and
costumes and writing lyrics for two of the four songs. The actors' multifaceted
participation in Altitude Sickness is one more unique thing about this
engaging production.
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