Caveman and vaudevillians

My wife and I saw the one-man show "Defending the Caveman" at the FAC this weekend.

What a fun date night. Cody Lyman did a great job in what is essentially a stand-up routine about the battle of the sexes. We laughed all the way through it. But it kinda bugs me that this isn't Cody's piece. It was Rob Becker's. It's been preserved like a museum piece and farmed out to various actors.

It had me longing for something fresh. I felt the same way after seeing TheatreWorks' "Blithe Spirit" last weekend. Wonderfully talented cast. But some Noel Coward has gotten tired. Again, some fine laughs. But ....

Then, last Saturday, I found something fresh: "10 Minutes Max" at the MAT. The sixth annual outing of this vaudeville show based on short bits was the best ever. The comedy, the dancing, the magic ... there wasn't a weak link here.

I especially loved actress Ashley Crockett's poetic monologue, "Hair" about her relationship with her hair from the time when she was a kid to when she lost her locks to cancer.

But it was the enormously versatile Emily Keller as the ticket girl who pulls a Lucy and tries to sneak into the show who ended up stealing it.