The Stage is The Rage

I attended my first full Stage at the Oakland last night, and it was amazing. I had been to part of one before but had the kids and left after hearing Chris Barzak read part of One for Sorrow. The Stage is truly the most eclectic mix of entertainment that exists in the valley, bar none. There were no bands last night, alas, but there were monologues, original readings, songs, karaoke, a hilarious sketch called "Rock 'n Roll Jesus" (my favorite of the night), and Dr. Ray's Science Sideshow (I think I've got the title close to right).

All of this was emceed by the incomparable Brooke Slanina, who would disappear during numbers, reappearing each time more and more in character as Brookeback Mountains, drag queen extraordinaire. At first, I felt like we were inconveniencing her, and I wanted to offer to read off the names for her so she could concentrate on getting dressed. But, clearly, she was as much a star of the show as anyone. And boy did she turn heads when we went out to BW3 afterwards!

Charlie Brown Gets Lucky

We went to Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead last night at the Oakland. It was our first full show at the Oakland, though we had been to a Stage and First Night there. The show follows the Peanuts gang ten years after we last knew them from the comic strip. Snoopy has to be put to sleep after being found with Woodstock in his jaws; Lucy loses her psychiatric touch and instead ends up in a psychiatric ward; and Pigpen has internalized his dirty ugliness and become a full-bodied homophobic germ.

I recommend going to see the show. We had fun, and there was lots to talk about afterwards (at Rosetta Stone, where we ate and drank until 1:45am), which I think is one of the points of going out to the theater. Plus, local theater is one of Youngstown's great assets. The sets are wonderful, the music sets a good tone, and the actors themselves were solid and, it seemed, delivered most everything that was asked of them.

However, the production and the play itself both have some regrettable flaws. Firstly, the "dog sees god" premise suggests deep philosophical musings on death and religion that are merely attempted by asking Van (think Linus) about Buddhism, by querying CB's sister (think Sally) on her flavor-of-the-week religion, Wiccanism, and by CB (Charlie Brown, if you haven't gotten it yet) delivering a brief monologue to Beethoven (think Schroeder) which the latter ignores. Dog-sees-god as a concept is really more of a conceit to propel the gang forward in time so they can drink, smoke weed, say "fuck," and discover their sexuality. This is fine; I understand that: we get some characters with which we're familiar, and we get to see them respond to a different set of situations. This leads us to our second problem.

Who the hell are these people? The fact that it's an unauthorized adaptation means you can't come right out and call Linus "Linus" or Sally "Sally," so I spent the first fifteen minutes of the show, if not more, trying to figure out who everybody was. And in the second act, when we finally meet Van's Sister (think Lucy) in the psych ward, I wasn't actually sure that CB's sister hadn't become committed and I had missed the plot line, because the actors appeared similar to me, and there just wasn't much effort to distinguish them physically.

So, let's talk about what really worked? The message that came through was sticking up for those who needed defense, and I thought Greg Mocker was outstanding. I couldn't watch anyone else when he was on stage. Well, okay, except for Brooke and Denise, who were their usual gorgeous selves. And the morning-after scene with a semi-clad Brooke was directorial genius!

So, go check out Dog Sees God at the Oakland, because it's entertaining and thought-provoking, not to mention arousing, adult entertainment (no, not that kind of adult entertainment, though you will see men kiss). And bring cash, because they don't take MasterCard, or American Express, or Visa.