By Cindy Whitehair and Perry Whitehair
The Off Broadway Theatre in Salt Lake City has long been a local staple for family-friendly parodies and A Lad N His Lamp is the latest in their repertoire. Written by co-founder and Artistic Director, Eric R. Jensen, A Lad N His Lamp is a mash up parody of Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves and Aladdin. Since the two stories are very familiar, it takes a deft touch to bring a fresh take to them– something Jensen accomplishes.
A Lad N His Lamp is the story of Ali Bobba (Sebastian Smith) and Princess Yasmina (Jennica Henderson) and the obstacles that they must overcome when they fall in love. There are the usual villains – Safar (Patrick Harris) and Polly (Matthew Davids), – a wisecracking genie (Jake Andersen), a dim, clueless flying carpet (Tonya Aikens), pets (Keenan Shafer, Aurora Gibson, David Sullivan,and Morgan Renee Thompson), family (Nathan Davis and Ashley Morales) and lots of villagers (Misty Coplan, Alex Johnson, Kelsie Reynolds, Angie Tabares, and Sara Tourigny) help add to the chaos and shenanigans that happen along the way to happily ever after.
As Princess Yasmina, Henderson takes a character that is normally portrayed as yet another damsel in distress (or conversely headstrong and demanding) and turns her into a very determined, self-aware young woman who knows exactly what she wants – even if she can’t quite describe it to herself. She knows it when she sees it. She says more with an eyeroll, a glance, or a look than words could ever describe which adds to the determination that makes Yasmina a woman ahead of her time. Smith’s Ali Bobba is sweet and sentimental and yet the epitome of 20-something cluelessness when courting. Their scenes together are magical.
Harris’ Safar is part Snidley Whiplash, part Dr. Evil, and part Paul Lynde. He is truly a villain you love to hate. Davids has a lot of fun portraying a parrot with legs (there is a joke in the show…. you must see it). Sullivan as Yasmina’s pet tiger Tangerine is an absolute hoot. The tiger stand-up routine at the Princesses birthday party is appropriately groan worthy, to say the least. Davis (King of Perszabar) is a doting, semi-senile father and great foil to Morales’ Queen of Perzabar, who you can tell Yasmina takes after. Reynolds (as narrator) has the fun of being able to interact with both the audience and the cast – breaking the 4th wall frequently to insert observations about the actions around her. Aikens is delightfully ditzy as Rugsy and quickly stole the audience’s hearts.
Andersen as the Genie is the scene stealer of the entire show. His energy is out of this world. His mannerisms, expressions, movements, and interactions with the rest of the cast is wildly over the top and it is exactly what you would expect of this character. The opening scene of Act Two has him and Harris charading to one another in the most hysterical way. It is side-splittingly funny.
One of the best things about seeing a show at OBT is that you never know if what you are seeing is improv or part of the script. In one scene, Smith addressed Safar as “Jofar”, then turns to the audience with a very sheepish look on his face and said, “Please don’t sue us.” During the second act, some of the scenery got tangled, which caused one of the scene scrims to start to rip. While it is not often the stage manager gets to be seen, much less address the audience, stage manager Lee Wailes stood center stage, apologized for the delay and went about fixing the scrim, while Sullivan (still in tiger costume) sat on the stage regaling the audience with more groan worthy jokes. Live theater can be like working without a net sometimes, but the OBT cast and crew sure made it all look easy. I was very impressed.
Sound and lights (Jensen and Rob Reins), set design (Jensen, Reins, and Clint Lehmberg) and costumes (Jensen and Janice Jensen) are all perfect for the middle of the desert somewhere in the Middle East. I was quite impressed with the mouth to the Cave of Miracles. It is quite well done, and you can tell, it took a bit of time to put together.
A Lad N His Lamp is one show guaranteed to have you laughing all the way to your car. It is irreverent and full of heart – in typical OBT style. This is truly one of Eric R. Jensen’s finest works.
The Off Broadway Theatre presents A Lad N His Lamp by Eric R. Jensen
The Off Broadway Theatre Company, 272 South Main Street, Salt
Lake City UT 84101
April 26, 27,29 May 3-4, 6, 10-12, 17-19, 24-25,
27, 31, June 1, 2019, 7:30 PM
Tickets: $10–16
Contact: 801-355-4628
https://www.theobt.org/ Off Broadway Theatre Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/theobt1994/
0 Comments