Theater Reviews. “Lily Dare” and “Paris”

Robert Massimi.
“The Confession of Lily Dare” has a plot that is full of sharp turns and reversal of fortunes. Lily is a 16-year-old convent girl whose freshness gets tainted with a bordello-keeping aunt in 1910 San Francisco. Later, she becomes a cabaret chanteuse, a criminal and then a madam herself. She watches from afar as the daughter she never knew rises in the world, and driven to extremes to protect her from disgrace.
Charles Busch has been the king of downtown camp for more than 35 years. From “Vampire, Lesbians of Sodom to Swing Time Canteen ( a show he wrote and I produced), Busch is a standout in these familiar campy roles. Reminiscent of the days of yore with The Ridiculous Theater Company, Busch was able to pick up and carry the torch of this kind of comedy. Very rarely seen today, this kind of absurdist comedy is still resonant among the downtown scene.
Carl Andress directs a tight show and the cast is all very good in this production, but Busch is the main attraction as he should be.

“Paris”
“Paris” is funny in the style of a workplace sitcom. This play is a mixture of comedy, a low-key social and psychological thriller in discomforting shadows. With many twists and turns, writer Eboni Booth leads us down a road that gets more and more narrow as the play moves on. What starts as light comedy, ends with a two hander. Booth gives the audience slight cuts at first and by the plays end, it has cut to the bone and beyond.
The play takes place at Berry’s. It is 1995 in a small town in Vermont called Paris. We first see Emmie (Jules Latimer) who is filling out an application with a huge gash on her cheek. Gar (Eddie K.Robinson), a hard-ass manager one minute and a sweet as pie the next is not well liked among his staff.
The show has some really good moments too it, Atlantic Stage 2 has a nice production with “Paris”. Fun to watch with many twists.

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