"TIGHTER THAN STEELY DAN'S BUTTHOLE"
BR Advocate Gives Swine Palace's
Arms and the Man Great Review

From the Baton Rouge Advocate:

Swine Palace has a winner on its hands.

The two intermissions in the playbill made some in the audience initially fret over the risk of boredom-induced coma.

Also entirely unfounded.

This play zipped along like a 2005 Mustang in pre-Katrina traffic, propelled speedily forward by acting that was as crisp as a fall apple.

Click here for the rest.

You won't find the quote from this post's title in the review. Rather, the line, orginally related to me by my buddy Kevin, comes from some studio chatter recorded by the band Ween. The statement goes something like, "Okay guys, let's make this one tighter than Steely Dan's butthole." For those of you not in the know, Steely Dan, one of my favorite bands, is well known for employing the very best musicians in the field. Consequently, even if one hates them, it must be acknowledged that their recordings and live shows are utterly perfect as far as musical virtuosity is concerned. That is, Steely Dan, especially since Frank Zappa died, is probably the tightest act in all of rock and roll. If your performance is "tighter than Steely Dan's butthole," then you're probably pretty damned tight.

And that seems to be the point of the review: we're doing this show with a level of theatrical proficiency that is surprising even to me, which makes sense because it feels like we've been working on it since the 1950s--actually, I mean since August, but the point is that we've rehearsed for at least twice as long as we would have ordinarily, thanks to rescheduling necessitated by Hurricane Katrina and the state budget shortfall brought with it. Well, there's also the learning curve: we are, after all, learning about acting in grad school, and I think this show is bearing some fruit from that. At any rate, the Advocate guy was impressed, which is very, very cool. Really, the review seems like a rave.

I must, however, take issue with one paragraph:

Ron Reeder, as Raina's father, Petkoff, did a marvelous job, too, although he was the only cast member who didn't attempt a British accent, which confused. His character was the least interesting, however, despite the actor's obvious command of the material.

I agree that Petkoff is probably the least interesting character in that he doesn't really have any sustained and direct conflict with any of the other characters--conflict is, as they say, the soul of drama. However, the assertion that I "didn't attempt a British accent" is tripe. Indeed, my dialect coach seems to think I'm doing a smashing job. I asked a few key people around the department what the deal was with such a statement and the consensus response was something to the effect that we're not in a big city, and perhaps the only kinds of British dialects with which the reviewer is familiar are Cockney and RPS, also known as English Standard. My dialect is, indeed, British, but it's a south of London sound, a Somerset dialect, kind of like the Bristol dialect used by the actor who plays Hagred in the Harry Potter movies, which often sounds kind of American--the director's point in using the Somerset dialect is to subtly establish that Petkoff is a nouveau riche, a former country bumpkin who's trying to be more sophisticated. Perhaps the choice was a bit too subtle. I don't know. But I do know that my dialect work is kickass, and everybody else seems to think so.

If you know my phone number, give me a call and I'll speak in Somerset for you. Really. I sound like Long John Silver for god's sake! What's up with this guy?

Ah well. I'll get over it. And don't get me wrong: I am thankful for what is, overall, quite a good review.


Anna Richardson's Raina can't help falling in love with the only man who is
straightforward with her, Bluntschli, played by Reuben Mitchell. Photo from the Advocate.

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