Nothing To Cringe About: "Rockin' Roles" RULES!

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Aside from their flawless presentation of the yearly Golden Pineapple Awards for excellence in theatre (an annual event in which this season's recipients included playwrights Charles Busch, Israel Horovitz and Doric Wilson, and Back Stage editor-at-large Sherry Eaker), the International CringeFest (also known as the ICF) takes place at the Producer's Club on 44th Street, and in every way possible comes up swinging mightily against all of the other Off-Off-Broadway gatherings of the same type every summer, namely the Fresh Fruit Festival, the Midtown International Theatre Festival and, of course, the New York Fringe Festival.

One of the ICF's most interesting gatherings this summer, and one which should wholeheartedly serve as a springboard to bigger and better things for nearly all involved, is Sex, Thugs, and Rockin' Roles, a collection of nine short plays. While not every piece hits a home run out of the park in terms of writing or performance, the whole is definitely greater than the sum of its parts, and this is due largely to director Tom Amici, who, for someone so new to the medium in a directorial capacity, has done a completely bang-up job with the handling of the evening's entertainment.

Three pieces stand out above all else, the first being Torrid Taxes, penned by Laurie Spector. A truly old-fashioned and hard-boiled detective story in the style of Mickey Spillane, performed by Jarrett Sullivan and Rebeca B. Miller in a dually-schizophrenic portrayal of delivery, the narrative presents a circumstance of widowhood and accidental parenting so preposterous as to only be side-splitting for the brilliance of the performances and the commitment to the script. John Lane's Four Characters in Search of a Play is equally riveting, with its hilarious tale of intrigue presented in the very best traditions of drawing-room farce, and the four characters in question embodied by Lauren Piselli, Joya Italiano, Roberto Angelini and Stephen McLarty. Fingerman, Hope Weiner's opus about a freakish young man born resembling an index finger and the hilarious consequences he must suffer for the price of fame and stardom, features the aforementioned Sullivan in the title role, with Steve Peluso as his mother, as well as a second infirm old lady, and the breathtaking performances of Latrey Evans and Rob Buchwald, respectively as drag backup singers Teeny and Weeny. The two, however, are given equal moments to shine on their own; Evans comes dangerously close to stealing the entire show as an oldtime minstrel entertainer in blackface for a turn in John Hendel'sThe Greatest Play Ev (although it's Max Stein who memorably utters a line slightly too vulgar to repeat here and yet utters it perfectly), and Buchwald is equally impressive in Sixty-Nine Stories, as a writer peeved with his publisher (played gorgeously by Peluso) and arguing about the controversial title of his latest manuscript.

Not quite as stellar, but easily able to hold its own, is Jack Karp's Don't Write a Bad Play, involving a playwright being held prisoner by terrorists, and in which the writer is portrayed by Stein, with Angelini and Piselli providing hilarious background beside Marc Barraco. There's also Godot, Act III by Ira Hauptmann, which would almost certainly have Samuel Beckett spinning in his grave for the delicious spin put upon the characters of his timeless classic; the twist is, this time Godot (portrayed by Peluso) actually shows up, to major disgust on the part of Vladimir and Estragon (McLarty and Stein respectively). Nanny Lends A Hand is a comical look at what would happen if Mary Poppins (played by Miller) were to hawk medications to combat erectile dysfunction, with Bert played by Sullivan, Angelini and McLarty as the chorus, and Barraco and Matthew Bryan Feld in additional roles. Unfortunately, the weak spot here is the poor choice of closing the evening with The Artistic Integrity of a Damned Fine Love Story by Robin Rodriguez. The ridiculously slow pacing of this piece cannot be solely the fault of director Amici, nor thespians Italiano, Feld and Sullivan, but in any case, it served a disappointing end to an otherwise wonderful evening of theater. (Note: At press time, the order of scenes had been changed). That aside, however, kudos must also be given to choreographer Krista Jensen, and to the brilliant Eddie Guttman for his original music and performance of same on piano.

Again, the evening as a whole is brilliant, even if not every aspect shines like certain others. Then again, would one get rid of a Rolls-Royce just because there was a slight dent in the grill? By all means, if Sex, Thugs, and Rockin' Roles becomes a regular part of CringeFest or elsewhere on the New York theatre scene, it is wholeheartedly worth visiting even with a few unremarkable and forgivable bumps along the road.