>>REVIEW
HIGH SCHOOL REUNION
Smooth Move Productions
Runs until December 31
Quincy’s on Seventh
I never liked high school. Long before I arrived, all pop culture references told me to expect both awkwardness and humiliation and, although the embarrassment still remains a useful source for retrospective laughs, the truth was just as unpleasant as the warning. Then again, there must be people who’d like to relive high school in all its campy ’80s glory. And I suppose they’d like Smooth Move Production’s High School Reunion.
Buried below Quincy’s on Seventh, under a decade’s worth of iconic toys and photographs, Smooth Move has staged an interactive dinner-theatre show offering catharsis and parody with a host of familiar high school stereotypes. There’s the jock, his cheerleader girlfriend, the nerd and a neurosis-ridden faculty. Pretending to be a fundraiser for rebuilding a defunct, incinerated high school, High School Reunion is essentially an excuse for ’80s alumni to come decked in their kitschiest best and strut onstage alongside a cast of in-character improvisers.
Like high school, the production is certainly not for those who want to keep a low profile. Errant audience members are sent to write lines at the detention table, sporting ones are shuffled onstage to perform in the air band competition, and the rhythmically inclined are invited to dance the night away. So, while the production offers a few nods to a structured play, such as the increasingly drunken campaigning of the former student body president, the night’s entertainment is mainly courtesy of those audience members who have been successfully coaxed by Smooth Move’s improvisers.
Although the cast can certainly sell their respective high school alter egos, the evening drags noticeably when the dance floor remains empty while the improvisers move from table to table, portraying their characters but not providing the needed energy to push the night forward. Without a cohesive narrative structure, even the most spot-on impression gets boring after awhile.
True, there are sparks of engaging theatre here and there – disturbing as a public, principal-administered spanking may be – but as a whole the show’s entertainment relies far too much on the audience. Is it funny to watch a nerd with abdomen-covering pants shake his ass with an intrepid table’s air band? Absolutely. Even the sheer audacity of some audience members’ ensembles can provoke a smile. But whether a meal of overcooked prime rib and cheesecake is worth the effort of decking yourself out in neon hot pants and bad wigs is another matter. As far as I’m concerned, three hours of loose improv and cajoling is as aggravating as three years covered in pimples and wondering whether facial hair will ever appear. I’d rather watch a tightly written play than meander through a shapeless Breakfast Club homage that gives me the opportunity to jam with a toy guitar.
Then again, if you’ve been waiting for an excuse to break out your best Ferris Bueller impression and your Cyndi Lauper headband, High School Reunion may be just the show for you. |
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