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69 Moments of Life
Actor, You're Killing Me
Air Tight Security
Almost True Adventures ...
Amazing Improvised Musical
Animal Farm
Ballerina on a Horse
Beautiful Man
Berserker
Caffe di Amore or ...
Check the Box
Clearing Hedges
Corned Beef
Countless
Crime & Variations
Death Blow II: ...
Demon Pope
Diagnosis: Jew Pain ...
Disco Prophecies
Ethan's Gift
Far From Springer
Fixed Boundry
Forty Love
Got Water
I Can't Believe They're Not Oriental!
Idiot Machine: ...
In Cahoots
John Muir: Watch, Pray, Fight
Late Night Talk Show
Ludlow and Canal
Magic at the Fringe
Man 1, Bank 0
Marx in Soho
Mixed Signal
Mother: A Modern Buddhist ...
Naked Inqisition
nEO - surrealists present: ...
Neon's Crazy Blue
Nharcolepsy
Original Action Pack
Park - N - Ride
Passages
Sandwich
Scabaret!
Searching for God in Kerala
Seventh Game of the World Series
Shadow Kissers
Strobe Vision
This World is Not My Home
Total Improvisation - ...
Train Stories
Tripping on the Equator ...
Twinspeak
Play: Crime and Variations
Reviewer: goreski
Reviewer Email:
Rating: 4 Stars
Another fine piece of theater here... and the plot is wonderful.
Highly recommended... the cast is fine, and the ensemble works well together. It's fun. Go see this for a change from all the 'solo performances' or improv acts that seem to be taking over the Fringe... this is an actual piece of 'theater'... a cast, a script, direction and blocking, props, and so on. And I think you'll laughat the situation on stage...
Play: Crimes and Variations
Reviewer: Jeff Thompson
Reviewer Email:
Rating: 4 Stars
This production of Joe Besecker's new play is intriguing,very funny, and
surprisingly optimistic, considering its' subjects include patricide and
Broadway. The performances are dead on; especially good are Carolyn Doyle
who has amazing comic timing and Stephen Patterson who is (as always) simply
amazing. As for those who seek to defend Mr. Sondheim's good name; this
play is obviously not intended as a biographical sketch, it is a comic rumination
on the price of celebrity, the fear of growing too old to continue creating
your art, and of the challenges of change. And it's Damn funny!
Play: Crime and Variations
Reviewer: Greg Reniere
Reviewer Email: greniere668@worldsavings.com
Rating: 5 Stars
Very twisted, funny and enjoyable. The audience was engaged throughout.
The acting was very good (the actor playing Alex may be a bit inexperienced,
but he fit the part)and the pace was fast. A must see at this year's fringe!
Play: crimes and variations
Reviewer: mike caggiano
Reviewer Email:
Rating: 3 Stars
The Night of the Narcissists also known as Joe Besecker's little fun
piece 'Crime and Variations' draws us into the flop opening night of some
forgettable Stephen Sondheim musical murder piece where an able Steven Patterson
plays Sondheim who whines and snits about why he's so unhappy producing
a failure. He naturally blames all within reach, especially freshman actor
Kevin Malfatti playing Alex King the actual killer who in turn plays the
self same killer in the play. The director of the flop is Daisy played by
Jennifer Taggert who actually steals the action with her scissor sharp performance
and who is likewise festooned with barbed accusations of incompetence by
Sondheim. The cast is rounded out with the aging new wife of Alex tentatively
played by Carolyn Doyle.
The other portion of the action is the presence of an ominous gaping elevator
shaft without a door which must represent the proximity of oblivion lurking
nearby (at least as far as the protagonists are concerned) It's all good
fun as the group tries to roll the huge bulging ego of Sondheim into the
position of accepting a complete rewrite of his folly as well as considering
the new work of the aspiring Alex as the bases of another effort.
Enthusiastically Mike Caggiano
Play: Crime and Variations
Reviewer: Stephen
Reviewer Email: SFTheatreLover@aol.com
Rating: 2 Stars
The name dropping didn't bother me as much as did the comparative lack of
craft compared to Besecker's other works (particularly the luminescent Best
of Fringe production of THE WAY LIGHT STRIKES FILLED MASON JARS with the
radiant Danielle Thys, who is sorely missing from this play). Bitchy dialogue
pretending to be clever reparte may have once worked and been a hallmark
of gays in the 1970's, but it doesn't pass here for theatre, particularly
for portraying such a master craftsman of language as Sondheim (whom, like
Vince Vitale, I have also met). The gentleman playing Sondheim resorts to
caricature versus character (as I've seen in other works he has performed).
The acting overall was uneven, though I am not sure if it is as a result
of the direction, which didn't seem as connected to the more genuinely clever
moments in the text. Besecker has done --and can do-- much better. If you
have a choice of other shows on the same night, pass this one this time.
Play: Crimes and Variations
Reviewer: Rollins Emerson
Reviewer Email: rmrsn@yahoo.com
Rating: 5 Stars
Very fun, smart, campy. I really enjoyed the clever plot, and three out
of four actors were excellent; the one not-so-great actor was adequate for
the part.
Play: Crimes and Variations
Reviewer: Darryl Henry
Reviewer Email:
Rating: 4 Stars
Sharp humor. Witty repartee. So what if part of the play consists of name
dropping? If this is the protagonist's circle of acquaintances, (you wonder
at times whether Sondheim has any friends, it works. A 4 character play,
characters (with a surprising number of intertwined relationships), snipe
at each other after a disastrous first day of a new play. If your idea of
humor is slapstick, take a pass. If you enjoy sarcasm (we're talking dark
at times), think David Letterman on a bad hair day, you'll enjoy this production.
Leno fans may go, "huh?"
Play: Crime and Variations
Reviewer: Susan
Reviewer Email: sallen@vsite.com
Rating: 5 Stars
Excellent writing, directing, and acting. Joe Besecker's play explores the
vulnerability of artists offering new work and the ambiguity of using "real
people" as the subject matter of a play. I have a feeling Stephen Sondheim
would get a kick out of it, if he has half the wit his own writing suggests.
This play is fun and fast paced. I brought a friend who is not only new
to the Fringe, but to live theater, and he was really pleased to have seen
it, and now wants to see more. Definitely 5 stars.
Play: Crimes and Variations
Reviewer: Andi C. Trindle Walker
Reviewer Email:
Rating: 4 Stars
A fun, well-performed and written farce about a preposterous subject--Stephen
Sondheim's disastrous new musical about Alex King, who murdered his father
with a baseball bat. Funny, well-crafted insanity.
Play: Crimes and Variations
Reviewer: I. Walker
Reviewer Email:
Rating: 5 Stars
Fast, funny, satire with an edge. The acting was top-notch, the direction
sharp, and the writing daring and edgy. Far above par.
Play: Crime and Variations
Reviewer: Vince Vitale
Reviewer Email: WorldGazer@aol.com
Rating: 3 Stars
Joe Besecker’s “Crime and Variations” portrays Stephen Sondheim
and Hal Prince’s daughter Daisy after a disastrous backer’s audition
in the near future. The play depends on name-dropping to hold interest.
Having met Sondheim in New York, I resent this fiction. Nor do I appreciate
icon-bashing of the still-living and great. They are often more fragile
than their reputations would reveal. “Crime” is a cheap shot.
Besecker can do better, as we know from last year’s production of “The
Way Light Strikes Filled Mason Jars.”