Gimme an F

Back in 2003 the now-dead cable TV network Trio briefly aired episodes of Good Clean Porn, the creation of Time magazine satirist Joel Stein that featured condensed versions of XXX-rated fare, albeit without the scenes that got those flicks the XXX rating.

Redneck Rhapsody

Under its blue state skin, Central New York has a hidden yearning for country music. So when country tastes and styles become grist for red-hot satire, we know just how the gags break.

No Fooling

Simon has never been a neglected playwright. Then again, letting some of his shows go fallow as we rethink his strengths has clearly been a good idea. Now in his twilight years, almost age 86, Simon isn’t producing anymore, and we’ve begun to miss him.

Womb with a View

The new production at Ithaca’s Kitchen Theatre Company begins with a stark, off-white square, the size of a parlor, and one metal chair without arms. Nothing else. High above this spartan space, scenic designer Alexander Woodward has placed a square frame, the same dimensions as the one on the floor.

Sleuth or Consequences

An Agatha Christie puzzler starts the summer season at Cortland Repertory

Stylish Agatha Christie mysteries have flourished at Cortland Repertory Theatre for several years now. The company really has the hang of them, beginning with dialect coach Dustin Charles, who commands British accents of different classes and, in the case of the season opener, The Unexpected Guest, two social classes in Welsh. Costumer Wendi R. Zea loves period costumes; this is a late Christie, 1958.

Drizzle Dazzler

Auburn’s Merry-Go-Round starts its summer with the tap-happy musical Singin’ in the Rain

You know summertime has really arrived when Ed Sayles, producing director for Auburn’s Merry- Go-Round Playhouse, tosses a posey into the audience to start every show. Indeed, MGR’s ebullient season kickoff with Singin’ in the Rain will make audiences forget that they have endured yet another typically long Central New York winter.

School Dazed

Cliques collide in the interactive spoofery of The Awesome 80s Prom

Synth pop, pom poms and Pop Rocks are among the cultural touchstones of The Awesome 80s Prom, the interactive stage spoof which marks the inaugural collaboration between the Covey Theatre Company and downtown’s Landmark Theatre.

Setting the Stage

Classics and newbies mix it up for Syracuse Stage’s 2013-2014 slate

Call it balance, if you will. The holiday show for Syracuse Stage’s 2013-2014 season will be the best-known stage work in the English language, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, albeit a new, non-musical version by innovative playwright Romulus Linney.

A Homer Run

A cast of one inhabits multiple roles for Syracuse Stage’s An Iliad

For several hundred years, the sprawling stories of western culture’s oldest epic, Homer’s The Iliad, were recited and acted out before they were written down. Even when seen on the page, certain pages seem to cry out to be spoken:stark verbal encounters and the hair-raising viciousness of battle.

Shakes It Up

Hamlet Cha Cha Cha kids the Bard in Central New York Playhouse’s musical spoof

As you can tell from the title, Hamlet Cha Cha Cha is not a tragedy about a melancholy Danish prince who can’t make up his mind. Strange to say, this Hamlet (Peter Dowling), sometimes called “Hammy,” speaks quite a few of the lines from Shakespeare. Like, “O! that this too solid flesh would melt,” only here it becomes a gag line.