➤ GENERATOR, from p.20
Technology but by a troupe of
wildly costumed dancers and via
a series of astonishing videos. The
evocative score, by John Michael
Swartz, is performed by NYOBS,
an “alternative experimental free
association queer skinned kitchen
band,” according to the program.
Comprised of Mike Cacciatore,
Cramer, Swartz, and Waters, the
band produces discordant tunes,
percussive blasts, primal screams,
and other sounds impossible to describe.
Given the expressionistic, otherworldly
➤ BLUES, from p.20
with a complex internal life. Guy is
a proud gay man in a world where
it is dangerous to be so. Like Angel,
he’s a fi ghter, and like her he
has a dark past, but his eye is always
on what’s possible. Morrison
is adept with sly quips and commentary.
“But I love this hat,” Delia
says at one point. “I know,” Guy replies,
Morrison brilliantly and subtly
conveying what a tragic thing
Guy knows that to be. At his core,
Guy is man of strength who lives
his truth. At one point he says, “If
you see me fi ghting a bear, help the
bear.” And we believe him.
Cleage’s vivid characters and
unsentimental examination of life’s
struggles, particularly those facing
African Americans in that era,
capture a full range of emotions,
reminding us to keep dreaming
even when it seems impossible. It’s
a reason to go to the theater.
In 1969, Paul Mazursky’s movie
“Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice”was
intended to satirize free loveand
judgment-free, it’s-just-physical sex
among middle class folks worried
the swinging ‘60s were passing
them by. Slightly titillating with
the suggestion of a frank openness
about sex, the fi lm ended instead
by reinforcing conventional morality.
In the age of Grindr, Scruff, and
Tinder, the story becomes a quaint
period piece lacking the courage of
its convictions, asserting, as Huey
Lewis sang, “It’s hip to be square.”
Mazursky’s fi lm is remembered today
mostly for giving us the Burt
Bacharach chestnut “What The
World Needs Now.”
Whatever possessed book writer
themes, you might expect
the band to feature an electronic
keyboard or synthesizer, but they
opt for an old-timey piano instead.
With its heady mix of low and
high tech, this is not a slick production,
and that’s by design. Yes,
there are video projections and
lighting effects.
But in the tradition of microbudget,
experimental downtown
theater, the piece also incorporates
simple materials in innovative
ways. For instance, the throbbing
primordial ooze is created by cast
members writhing beneath a huge
plastic tarp.
The “scent score,” courtesy of
Ethan Shoshan, is drawn from
agarwood and moss lichen to provide
an olfactory complement to
the action onstage. They even hand
out scent samples to bring home as
you exit the theater.
Despite intermittent moments
of striking, often haunting imagery,
the spectacle can become
overwhelming, if not bewildering.
Some speeches delivered by Technology
feel overwrought, and any
coherent messages are lost in the
maelstrom.
“Generator: Pestilence Part 1”
is the fi rst of a three-part cycle
merging science and technology
to examine the nature of origins.
Although press materials describe
the piece as a “meditation on the
AIDS epidemic as cultural phenomenon,”
I missed any clear references
to this theme, except in
the title. Perhaps the topic will be
explored in Part 2 or Part 3.
GENERATOR: PESTILENCE
PART 1 |The Downstairs Theatre
at La MaMa, 66 E. Fourth St., btwn.
Bowery & Second Ave. | Through
Mar. 1: Thu.- Sat. at 8 p.m.; Sun. at
5 p.m. | $25 at lamama.org | Ninety
mins., with no intermission
Jasminn Johnson, Alfi e Fuller, and John-Andrew Morrison in Pearl Cleage’s “Blues for an Alabama Sky,” directed by LA Williams, at Theatre Row through
March 14.
Jonathan Marc Sherman and lyricists
Duncan Sheik and Amanda
Green — with Sheik writing the
tunes — to adapt this movie as a
musical, it was not their best idea
or their best work, as the current
New Group production makes
abundantly clear. It’s a crashing
bore with a score comprised of
pastiche elevator music from the
1970s.
Sherman’s book tracks the movie
pretty much scene by scene as
the two-dimensional Bob & Carol
go from an “eye-opening” encounter
group to a new level of honesty
about affairs and communication
and an attempt to enroll their best
friends, the more conservative Ted
& Alice, in their newfound “freedom.”
When all the blather is done,
they fi nd themselves in Las Vegas
on the verge of a foursome, but it
fi zzles out, and unlike the movie
where the couples emerge into the
daylight as lost and confused as
they started but with each other,
here the show just ends.
The saving grace of the production
is the cast. Joél Pérez as
Bob, Jennifer Damiano as Carol,
Michael Zegen as Ted, and Ana
Nogueira as Alice all have impressive
credits and give the piece what
life it has.
Eighties icon Suzanne Vega
leads the band and does a lot of
the singing with a lot of easy style,
even if the songs themselves are
nondescript.
The whole undertaking is bland,
the world having moved on long ago
from the show’s tired themes and
CAROL ROSEGG
clichéd characters. “Bob & Carol
& Ted & Alice” is exactly what the
world doesn’t need right now. The
theater, either.
BLUES FOR AN ALABAMA SKY|
Keen Company at Theatre Row, 410
W. 42nd St. | Through Mar. 14: Tue.-
Thu. at 7 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. at 8 p.m.;
Sat. at 2 p.m.; Sun. at 3 p.m. | $65,
$28 on Tue. at telecharge.com or
212-239-6200 | Two hrs., 30 mins.,
with intermission
BOB & CAROL & TED & ALICE|
The New Group at the Pershing
Square Signature Center, 480 W.
42nd St. | Through Mar.22: Tue.-
Fri. at 7:30 p.m.; Wed., Sat.-Sun. at
2 p.m. | $28-$133 at thenewgroup.
org or 917-935-4242 | One hr., 45
mins., with no intermission
GayCityNews.com | February 27 - March 11, 2020 21
/lamama.org
/telecharge.com
/GayCityNews.com
