Review: Ennio! At The Calderwood Pavilion At The BCA
Disclaimer: I received a free tickets to this show with the stipulation that I write a review on my blog for it.
I am not what you would call a theatergoer. It is not that I have anything against theater, but I usually spend my money at concerts at T.T.s or the Paradise and at Fenway. The last time I was at a play was at the Wang over 2 years ago when I saw Chicago with the ex. Thus, I tried to go into tonight's performance of Ennio! at the Calderwood Pavilion in the BCA with an open mind despite my general lack of theater going experiences. So what is Ennio!? Pretty much it is a one man performance piece by Ennio Marchetto where he puts on different costumes made out of paper/plastic and lips syncs to pre-recorded tracks while pretending to be cultural icons mostly from the world of music and to a lesser extent film.
What separates the show from just a mimic comic performance is the way the costumes are made and used. Ennio strives to be a "living cartoon." What this means is that he will transform from one character to another simply by folding his paper costumes in a different manner which completely changes his appearance into another character. Sometimes this is done when the lights are cut and the stage is dark; however, the most entertaining part of the show is when he transforms on stage right in front of the audience. Some of the changes are amazing to watch. My favorite of the night was his transformation from Cher into C3PO From Star Wars; this was especially funny since Cher's song Believe sounds robotic. Many times during the show you will marvel at all the time and effort that must have been put into creating the costumes in such a way that they can be transformed into something completely different on stage. The change from Eminem into Gloria Gaynor was another highlight.
While Ennio! is certainly an original show and at times very funny, I found that it was a little longer then it had to be. The show is about 70 minutes and some of the characters kinda drag on. It might be a more effective show at 45 minutes. In addition, a few too many times he relied on repetitive cleavage and penis site gags. Overall the show was certainly interesting and unique, but I would only recommend paying for it to people who are predisposed to liking things like this. Overall Grade B
*Spoiler: If you want to see a few highlights from Ennio show, someone posted some on youtube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=sAFI1i5FIBc
I am not what you would call a theatergoer. It is not that I have anything against theater, but I usually spend my money at concerts at T.T.s or the Paradise and at Fenway. The last time I was at a play was at the Wang over 2 years ago when I saw Chicago with the ex. Thus, I tried to go into tonight's performance of Ennio! at the Calderwood Pavilion in the BCA with an open mind despite my general lack of theater going experiences. So what is Ennio!? Pretty much it is a one man performance piece by Ennio Marchetto where he puts on different costumes made out of paper/plastic and lips syncs to pre-recorded tracks while pretending to be cultural icons mostly from the world of music and to a lesser extent film.
What separates the show from just a mimic comic performance is the way the costumes are made and used. Ennio strives to be a "living cartoon." What this means is that he will transform from one character to another simply by folding his paper costumes in a different manner which completely changes his appearance into another character. Sometimes this is done when the lights are cut and the stage is dark; however, the most entertaining part of the show is when he transforms on stage right in front of the audience. Some of the changes are amazing to watch. My favorite of the night was his transformation from Cher into C3PO From Star Wars; this was especially funny since Cher's song Believe sounds robotic. Many times during the show you will marvel at all the time and effort that must have been put into creating the costumes in such a way that they can be transformed into something completely different on stage. The change from Eminem into Gloria Gaynor was another highlight.
While Ennio! is certainly an original show and at times very funny, I found that it was a little longer then it had to be. The show is about 70 minutes and some of the characters kinda drag on. It might be a more effective show at 45 minutes. In addition, a few too many times he relied on repetitive cleavage and penis site gags. Overall the show was certainly interesting and unique, but I would only recommend paying for it to people who are predisposed to liking things like this. Overall Grade B
*Spoiler: If you want to see a few highlights from Ennio show, someone posted some on youtube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=sAFI1i5FIBc
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