Review: Laugh ‘Til You Die at The VAPA Center
By Perry Tannenbaum
A vampire visits a comely maiden dressed bewitchingly in black for Halloween. A werewolf goes to a special summer camp for monsters. A strange woman with a cloven head conspires with a mouse to murder an angel. These are among the seasonal dainties served up by Concord-based Post Mortem Players in Laugh ‘Til You Die, their second annual invasion of the QC, continuing at The VAPA Center through October 12.
Subtitled “A Night of Spooky Sketches & Songs,” this Charlotte’s Off-Broadway production is even more freewheeling and fragmented than last month’s Meet and Greet medley of one-acts at the VAPA Black Box. Eleven sketches and songs paraded across the cramped stage on opening night, but that number figures to fluctuate as the second weekend of the run rolls in.
That’s because the musical chores are handled by a revolving roster of guest artists. Last weekend, these included Cole Thannisch, Myles Arnold, and cast members from Post Mortem’s upcoming production of The Rocky Horror Show. Rocky, Magenta, Frank-N-Furter, Columbia, and Riff Raff will all be on hand to torment Brad and Janet up yonder in Concord, when the full Rocky premieres on October 23 at the Old Courthouse Theatre’s new Wilson Family Black Box.
Meanwhile, enough of the gang showed up in full costume to fill the VAPA stage for two of the ghoulish musical’s signature numbers, the dreamy “Science Fiction Double Feature” and the imperishable “Time Warp” dance orgy. The young lions and lionesses will return for two of the three remaining Charlotte performances. More adventurous and exhibitionistic theatergoers will likely opt for the Rocky visitation at the Saturday night special, which amps up the macabre mischief with a costume contest.
Most lamentably revolving out of the guest rotation will be Arnold’s rousing rendition of the “Oogie Boogie Song” from The Nightmare Before Christmas, a charming amalgam of Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, and The Grinch. Thannisch yielded nothing to Arnold’s exploits in terms of charisma, smoothest and most urbane in his golden jacket as the evening’s first vampire.
Director Alli B. Graham mostly had Thannisch and Arnold singing to members of her sketch cast, so the shuttling back and forth between sketch and song flowed quite naturally. Because Nicole Cunningham wrote three of the five Laugh ‘Til You Die blackouts – each of the three a screwball parody – there was a stylistic consistency as well.
After serving as a very willing recipient for Thannisch’s vampire advances, staged far too chastely by Graham for a Charlotte audience, Cunningham cunningly continued as a witch named Laura in “Cry Witch,” strewn with references and quotes from Arthur Miller’s The Crucible. Laura seemed to be a Halloween witch rather than the real thing, married to Ryan: Dalton Norman dressed up as a fiery red devil.
The hellish secret they share is a piña colada-flavored pair of edible panties that was very unfortunately misplaced. Christine Hull, skilled at overacting in the grand Saturday Night Live manner, is the community’s moral watchdog and grand inquisitor, sending Norman and Cunningham into a nicely frothed panic. So refreshing to see a genuine witch hunt, isn’t it?
In a nicely gauged solo, Cunningham – in a costume that reminds us of an airline stewardess – welcomes us aboard a cruise along the River Styx with wonderfully plastic cheer in “Onboarding.” Since Gretchen isn’t getting off at Hades like the rest of us, maybe because she’s been there and back, she allows herself a certain amount of smug superiority mixed with her peppiness toward those of us who will stay the course. The rest of us, she serenely predicts, will jump ship. Not a preferable option.
Zaniest of all, Cunningham has penned the surreal “Cilantro and Old Lace,” where we encounter Hull once again as a cutesy mouse named Michelle and the creepy Bobbi Hawk as the cloven June, a somehow embittered woman with a meat cleaver embedded across her head. Whether or not it has anything to do with the blood-spattered cleaver, June holds some kind of grudge against the angel (or fairy?) Rhea, a precious and catty Norman in drag.
Yes, Rhea is irritating, but maybe not to the extent that she should fall victim to the deranged June taking advantage of her nemesis’s cilantro allergy. Cilantro doesn’t exactly replace the arsenic in the familiar – and similarly off-kilter – Arsenic and Old Lace. Cunningham serves the more iconic poison as a side dish.
The remaining skits are written by Andrew Pippin and Mortem marketing manager Kimberly Saunders. “Final Girl” by Saunders has arguably the least Halloween aroma of all the Laugh ‘Til You Die segments, though its ends with a fairly creepy twist. Dave Gilpin is both boss and job interviewer as Mr. Smith, eventually allowing himself to be coaxed into giving his own assistant – Hull already in her mousey mode – a crack at the opening.
Neither Cunningham as Candidate 1 nor Steve Harper as Candidate 2 earns an on-the-spot job offer from Mr. Smith before Hull gets her chance to shine in the spotlight. Harper charmed me more as the also-ran, so efficiently toting his portfolio and handing Mr. Smith his résumé. Graham must have been equally charmed in her director’s chair, for she brought Harper back for an encore immediately afterwards, clutching his portfolio for dear life as Arnold slayed in his Oogie Boogeyman showstopper.
Pippin’s “Camp Amamonsta” has as much Halloween seasoning as “Cry Witch,” with a pinch more plotting, swift pacing, and a delicious ending, though Graham’s staging is a bit stagnant. Hull is at her most fulsome as Kate, the camp counselor welcoming all her monster campers to their first day – fulsome enough for us in the audience to feel included in the welcome.
The opening day lineup includes Hawk as Vampire Bella, Norman as Jackula III, Marcella Pansini in the thankless sheet-over-her-head role as a banshee ghost, and the wondrous Harper as Harry the Werewolf, though you might perceive a lick of Cowardly Lion. Into this idyllic bliss, a scorned outsider will intrude: Gilpin as Dave. A human being!
Hull retains an all-you-kids-play-nicely airiness amid the hullabaloo as Kate when it turns out that Bella is carrying on a forbidden romance with Dave. Like the rest of us, Dave is confident that his beloved merely has cosplay friends rather than fearsome monsters. Truth is, the bully among the campers, Jackula seems more likely to chugalug a beer than gobble up Dave. Harry? He’ll probably follow Jack’s lead. Whatever.
To avoid all these threats, Bella manages to talk Dave into pretending he’s a new camper rather than an outsider. Dave, however, doesn’t discard his insouciance, playing along rather than realizing he’s in peril. Yes, Pippin’s playlet actually has a setup that he could extend as long as he wishes.
At present, that isn’t too long, though we encourage Pippin to have second thoughts. Meanwhile, there’s a nifty ending in his hip pocket.
If you put the full Concord production of Rocky Horror on your calendar, you will be treated to multiple helpings of the leggy Lindsey Litka-Montes as the Popcorn Usherette and Magenta. She vamped me pretty good in “Science Fiction Double Feature,” camping next to me in the front row before making her rounds among the paying customers.
I confess to finding her even more tempting than the popcorn.
Art on My Sleeve 