Friday February 24, 2006 SGN.org |
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Volume 34 Issue 08 |
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Saturday, Nov 21, 2009
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THE HOMECOMING QUEEN RUNNER-UP'S GOT A GUN |
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| THE HOMECOMING QUEEN RUNNER-UP'S GOT A GUN | ||
| Capitol Hill High, Episode One: The Queen Isn't Dead Yet at Capitol Hill Arts Center
by Maggie Bloodstone - SGN A&E Writer O, that vale of fevered egos, insecurities, hormones, and neuroses-that Petri dish of social malfunction, that seventh circle of Hell&of course, I'm talking about high school. This is the place where our budding personalities, for better or (mostly) worse, are molded, nurtured, folded, spindled, and mutilated, and despite whatever heights we scale and obstacles we overcome in adult life, we never. Really. Leave. Never. And that's what makes this institution such an inexhaustible source of satire, from the National Lampoon's brilliant High School Yearbook Parody (the inspiration for Animal House) to Heathers to Cry Baby to, possibly, Capitol Hill High-? Brought to you by the same "punk-ass hookers" behind Desperate Liaisons and The Exorcist: The Musical!, Bad Actor Productions takes revenge on their own doubtlessly traumatic school days and every TV show and film that ever tried to package those 4 years of soul-shredding torment as the 'best years of your life'. CHH is stocked with hybrids of basic adolescent types and Pike/Pine corridor natives: the horny rocker couple are tattooed '90's-style Grungies (Jason Sharp and Sarah Papineau), the 'Art Fag Mafia' (Rodney Shrader, Joel Steinpreis, Spencer Thorson) are the hoodie-wearing, unsmiling 'mean girls', there's the pseudo-intellectual (Mary Brannigan), the aspiring film auteur (Nick Denke), and the spiritual offspring of that weird but lovable blond guy from Square Pegs, 'Burning Man Guy' (Dan Garlington). Rounding out this pack of painfully self-aware Breakfast Clubbers are the professional high school students, the perpetually pregnant cheerleader and unctuous class president,(Deniece Bleha, Jeffrey Gilbert), the Queen Bee (Iman-esque drag queen Ade'), the 'New Guy From Walla Walla' (Josh Hartvigson), and 'The Really Gay Guy' (typecast Craig Trolli). Oh, and the one faculty member, Lord God King Bu-Fu, 'Mr. Buckles' (Gary Zinter). The story pretty much writes itself: New Guy, concerned about fitting in, and whether or not he's "masturbating the right way', falls for the Queen Bee, forges an alliance with the bigger Queen, who wishes he were "post-Gay", but remains relentlessly cheerful and stereotypically obsessed with cultural effluvia, like who did the original version of 'Our Lips Are Sealed'. There's boyfriend-stealing, clique-breaking, self-discovery (in more ways than one), a double-dutch to the death, and intrigues that would make the court of Versailles look like a basket of puppies, all culminating in-duh-The Prom. (There's no pig blood, but a really cringeworthy abortion joke.) That's about it, but that's enough-writer/director Dan Dembiczak packs the script with enough quotable lines and regional references to satisfy any jaded late-night audience (even transplants from Idaho or Lynnwood), and the cast is clearly enjoying the hell out of their respective roles: Ade' skillfully exudes that only-for-show brand of sexuality common to the 'Popular Girl' who effortlessly twists 17-year-old boys' libidos around her French-wrapped finger, and Hartvigson is convincing enough as her adoring swain to make you wonder if he ever got any in school. Craig Trolli's effervescent Friend Of Dorothy is someone I would have loved to hang out with at Tahoma High myself (and who my mother would call my "little boyfriend" like she did the Gay guy I did hang out with), if teenage closet doors were allowed to swing open a little wider in 1973. Everyone in the cast inhabits their characters to the fullest, most disturbingly the palpably creepy, pants-less Mr Buckles, who strongly suggests some real-life teacher who may have influenced young Gary Zinter&deeply. Still, there's room for more, let's say, anarchism and bar-theater excess, as in the orgasmically over-the-top Exorcist, and there are spots where the youthful energy flags, mostly in the middle, but it all comes together at the end, and there's potential aplenty for C.H.H. to develop into a gotta-see-every-episode late night ritual. Stay tuned for Episode 2: who's escaped from the asylum? Who's dead? And who's Mexican? Capitol Hill High: Episode 1 plays Thurs-Sat, 10:30 pm, at Capitol Hill Arts Center, 1621 12th Ave., brownpapertickets.com |
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