MEAN: A Whimsical Musical Comedy about Charles Manson by Carl Foster 84 views
RUNNING: Friday, February 17th – Saturday, March 10, 2012
ONE “PAY WHAT YOU CAN NIGHT” PERFORMANCE: Monday, February 27th
SHOWTIMES: WED.-SAT. @8:15P.
ADMISSION: $15 Purchase Advance Tickets On-Line
or
Call (214) 826 -6273 to Purchase by Phone
REVIEW OF "MEAN" AT THE OCHRE HOUSE
Matthew Posey, founder and lead director of the Ochre House in Deep Ellum, plays Charles "Tex" Watson as he mixes up for the first time with future Manson family cohorts Squeaky Fromme (Anastasia Munoz) and Charles Manson himself (Mitchell Parrack) in a musical comedy which utilizes a wide spectrum of humor: from low-brow to high-brow; verbal to physical; slapstick to nonsensical murderousness. Throw in a handful of impassioned, brooding western ditties and you have the formula for "Mean," if you also include the hyper-lucid ravings of Charles Manson, of course.
The Ochre House is small. It is nestled between a vintage clothing shop and a tiny fitness center. Although it has superb location on Dallas's downtown drag Exposition Street, and its entrance is within sight of the grand gates to Fair Park, this theatre could be appropriately described as "impossible to find."
Once inside, finding a spot amidst the general admission seating is an intimate procedure, giving one the sensation of looking for a seat on a nearly full bus. If the house lights had not dropped, the audience would have resembled a large A.A. meeting, coiled around the main floor in a half-circle of folding chairs. This closeness to the confrontation could not have worked better for the performance.
The cast of "MEAN" is dynamic group of performers who bring together music, dance, and comedy between moments of argument and violent grappling. There is also the high school-esque unpopularity of Charles Manson, which is an apt joke that disappears, along with most of the humor itself, in the second act.
Yet despite the mood change, the music of the live band holds the entire show together with consistent and powerful melodies that somehow carry the amusement from the social situations of the beginning to the gory carnage of the end.
The cast seems to keep growing throughout the show, and this poses a problem because there is nowhere near enough time for all of the characters to develop or do something meaningful. We just have to accept that Charles Manson is going do for these people what Titanic did for the countless minor characters in that movie.
Therefore this musical is best viewed as a single evening in the much larger history of the Manson family, a glimpse foreshadowing what most competent Americans know is to come. It is not a story that some time-traveler from ancient Germany would find fully contained within itself, and those seeking real insight to the Manson family would do better to read Helter Skelter.
"Mean" is a delightful romp in which bar characters toss out funny lines, get onstage to sing with the band, or tell Charles Manson to be quiet and gradually intensify the man's wrath.
The novelty of the Ochre House experience and the talent of the cast and crew make the haphazard playing out of this bar room scene a very worthwhile experience.
RUNNING: Friday, February 17th – Saturday, March 10, 2012
ONE “PAY WHAT YOU CAN NIGHT” PERFORMANCE: Monday, February 27th
SHOWTIMES: WED.-SAT. @8:15P.
ADMISSION: $15 Purchase Advance Tickets On-Line
or
Call (214) 826 -6273 to Purchase by Phone
REVIEW OF "MEAN" AT THE OCHRE HOUSE
Matthew Posey, founder and lead director of the Ochre House in Deep Ellum, plays Charles "Tex" Watson as he mixes up for the first time with future Manson family cohorts Squeaky Fromme (Anastasia Munoz) and Charles Manson himself (Mitchell Parrack) in a musical comedy which utilizes a wide spectrum of humor: from low-brow to high-brow; verbal to physical; slapstick to nonsensical murderousness. Throw in a handful of impassioned, brooding western ditties and you have the formula for "Mean," if you also include the hyper-lucid ravings of Charles Manson, of course.
The Ochre House is small. It is nestled between a vintage clothing shop and a tiny fitness center. Although it has superb location on Dallas's downtown drag Exposition Street, and its entrance is within sight of the grand gates to Fair Park, this theatre could be appropriately described as "impossible to find."
Once inside, finding a spot amidst the general admission seating is an intimate procedure, giving one the sensation of looking for a seat on a nearly full bus. If the house lights had not dropped, the audience would have resembled a large A.A. meeting, coiled around the main floor in a half-circle of folding chairs. This closeness to the confrontation could not have worked better for the performance.
The cast of "MEAN" is dynamic group of performers who bring together music, dance, and comedy between moments of argument and violent grappling. There is also the high school-esque unpopularity of Charles Manson, which is an apt joke that disappears, along with most of the humor itself, in the second act.
Yet despite the mood change, the music of the live band holds the entire show together with consistent and powerful melodies that somehow carry the amusement from the social situations of the beginning to the gory carnage of the end.
The cast seems to keep growing throughout the show, and this poses a problem because there is nowhere near enough time for all of the characters to develop or do something meaningful. We just have to accept that Charles Manson is going do for these people what Titanic did for the countless minor characters in that movie.
Therefore this musical is best viewed as a single evening in the much larger history of the Manson family, a glimpse foreshadowing what most competent Americans know is to come. It is not a story that some time-traveler from ancient Germany would find fully contained within itself, and those seeking real insight to the Manson family would do better to read Helter Skelter.
"Mean" is a delightful romp in which bar characters toss out funny lines, get onstage to sing with the band, or tell Charles Manson to be quiet and gradually intensify the man's wrath.
The novelty of the Ochre House experience and the talent of the cast and crew make the haphazard playing out of this bar room scene a very worthwhile experience.