Review: "The Mascot Murders" Unholsters No-Holds-Barred Noir Parody

The Mascot Murders

Written by Michael Zielinski

Directed by Ken Wolf

Presented by Manhattan Repertory Theatre at the Chain Theatre

312 West 36th Street, 4th Floor, Manhattan, NYC

June 7-9, 2024

Dave Silberger as Tom and Nathan Cusson as Matt. Photo by John Sarno
For a brand, a mascot does nothing but trumpet identity, but for the person inside a mascot costume, complete anonymity is the diametrically opposed effect. There's also something inherently humorous and yet a little creepy about these ungainly, unspeaking, masked characters (think about how many horror movie villains fit that description). Michael Zielinski's new play, The Mascot Murders, notwithstanding its title, mines these contradictory elements not for fright but for full-tilt farce, as a pair of hapless private investigators face repeated–and varyingly outrageous–attempts on their lives by someone concealed within the fuzzy exteriors of various mascot costumes.

Nathan Cusson as Matt and Geoffrey Grady as Biff Benson with Shelly. Photo by John Sarno
While introduced comically insulting one another's food and sex habits, among other things, P.I.s Tom (Dave Silberger) and Matt (Nathan Cusson) perform well enough together, noir-tinged squabbling banter aside, to have amassed numerous criminal enemies who need investigating after they are shot at while driving–one of the more banal methods of attempted murder in the show even as it involves an overpowered weapon and someone in a bear suit. After surviving a few more near-assassinations at their office–run by Barb (Jessica Luhmann), who is not above using Matt's desk for an amorous liaison–the duo, who are investigating the murder of one Frank Furter, set out to interrogate a number of people who may want them dead. These visits structure a stretch of the play and introduce us to a set of colorful suspects, from many-times-widowed Southern belle-type Alice Stumpf (Chelsea Clark) to piano teacher-cum-MMA fighter and one-time date of Matt's Ladyfingers (Chelsea Clark) to tattooist Tony "the Tiger" Galento (Geoffrey Grady), who still holds a grudge over a past run-in with Tom's tire iron. Among the sex worker propositions and pet turtle attacks that bedevil Matt and Tom's efforts to get to the bottom of who is under the mascot masks, the P.I.s face a cavalcade of outlandish homicidal assays using grenades, a frozen chicken leg, what can legitimately be called a booby trap, and much more.
Chelsea Clark as Honey Pot and Jessica Luhmann as Barb. Photo by John Sarno
The Mascot Murders is packed with jokes, with no reluctance to be silly or scatological; quick-moving and often gleefully absurd, it achieves something of the feel of a live-action cartoon (a brief use of the Benny Hill theme is a good aural evocation of the show's madcap energy). Luhmann is an excellent comic foil to the deadpan ineptitude with which Silberger and Cusson invest Tom and Matt, with Cusson in particular bringing a lot of physical comedy to the role, while Grady and Clark each create multiple memorably over-the-top characters. Among the various mascot encounters (spoiler), a scene with an attacker in a dino costume is especially hilarious, and the play even includes a couple of twists. The sound design plays an important role in manifesting the machine guns and Molotov cocktails and exploding tattoo guns that appear over the course of Matt and Tom's investigation, which, in a fun touch, you are invited to further complicate by wearing an (optional) mask handed out when you check in. If, say, a killer dominatrix in an oversized cat head sounds like your brand of funny, then The Mascot Murders has you covered, and then some.

-John R. Ziegler and Leah Richards

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Immersive "American Blues: 5 Short Plays by Tennessee Williams" Takes Audiences on a Marvelously Crafted Journey

Image
American Blues: 5 Short Plays by Tennessee Williams Written by Tennessee Williams Directed by Jim Niesen Presented by the Irondale Ensemble Project at The Space at Irondale 85 South Oxford St., Brooklyn, NYC October 27-November 26, 2023 Shadenia Savid in Moony's Kids Don't Cry . Photo by Natasha Rotondaro In 1948, Tennessee Williams published American Blues , a collection of five one-act plays, and a remarkable new production of this collection by Brooklyn's Irondale shows that these works have lost none of their power to both entertain and challenge audiences in the intervening three-quarters of a century. Comprising plays written in the decade between 1936 and 1946 - Moony's Kids Don't Cry (1936); The Dark Room (1939); The Case of the Crushed Petunias (1941); The Long Stay Cut Short, or, the Unsatisfactory Supper (1946); and Ten Blocks on the Camino Real (1946) - American Blues represents the second part of Irondale's American Century, the first install
Read more

Review: "How To Eat an Orange" Cuts into the Life of an Argentine Artist and Activist

Image
How To Eat an Orange Written by Catherine Filloux Based on the writing of Claudia Bernardi Directed by Elena Araoz Presented by La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club at The Downstairs at La MaMa 66 E 4th St., Manhattan, NYC May 30-June 16, 2024 Paula Pizzi. Photo by Steven Pisano How To Eat an Orange , making its world premiere at La MaMa, does in fact include a real orange as a prop, and its multifarious symbolizations–evoking at different points cultural specificity, family history, matriarchal inheritance, and even a skull–are representative of the play's boundary-blurring, non-linear presentation of memory. The memories in question belong to visual artist, educator, and activist Claudia Bernardi , who lived through several years of her native Argentina's military junta, which held power from 1976 to 1983, before departing her country and eventually settling in the United States. How To Eat an Orange , from Catherine Filloux, a French Algerian American award-winning playwright,
Read more

Review: From Child Pose to Stand(ing) Up: "Yoga with Jillian" and "Penguin in Your Ear" at the Women in Theatre Festival

Image
Yoga with Jillian Written by Lia Romeo Directed by Andrew W. Smith Presented by Project Y Theatre and Richard Jordan Productions in association with The Pleasance June 2-17, 2023 Penguin in Your Ear Written and performed by Eliza Bent Directed by Jess Barbagallo June 10, 2023 Part of the Women in Theatre Festival , presented by Project Y Theatre at A.R.T./New York Theatres Michole Biancosino. Photo courtesy of Project Y Theatre This June, Project Y Theatre Company presents the eighth annual installment of its Women in Theatre Festival (WIT), which showcases new work by women and maintains "more than 50% female representation of all artists involved." This year, the festival includes a lobby installation project, titled In the Betweens , from scenic designer Chen-Wei Liao, through which audience members pass on their way into the theater proper. One first chooses first between "light" and "dark" rooms and then moves into "the gardens" before re
Read more