Don't really know how good this play is, but I do know that we haven't yet seen what's possible.
Ensemble Studio Theater – Los Angeles is staging an obscenely funny late-night rock-music sketch show, Crack Whore Galore — Live!, at its new Atwater Village theater. Created by Ryan Oliver, Danny Roew, Graham Sibley, Tonya Cornelisse and director Gates McFadden, it features Sibley and Cornelisse as Brit-trash rockers who met in a London rehab and somehow made it to Hollywood, or at least to its sidewalks, in pursuit of rock & roll stardom. Their band is called Crack Whore, and their hourlong cabaret opens with warm-up balladeer Jackie Tohn on acoustic guitar, crooning with remarkable vocal dexterity about low self-esteem and love. Into her act crash wafer-thin, obnoxiously loud Abbey (in shades, skirt and torn fishnets) and Danny Galore (in vest and ripped shirt), wielding a shopping cart filled with mannequins and other crap for their act.
PHOTO BY DANY ROEW
Crack Whore Galore — deeply in love with themselves
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Commenting loudly on how each of Tohn's songs is worse than the last, they "set up" behind her while she attempts to finish her act. They smash open a roll-down screen (to be used for a preview of their sex tape, sold after the show in the lobby). The moment the livid Tohn leaves the stage captures the moment '60s folk yielded to punk.
What follows is pornography in song. In fact, during a 30-second "break," guitarist Danny impregnates drummer Abbey for at least the sixth time since they met. You'd think Abbey is beyond a meltdown, but in a moment of despondency, she crawls inside the shopping cart: "I can't do this anymore, Danny, I just can't."
To woo her back, and out, he croons the love song that he wrote just for her: "It's all clogged up/The pressure's all built up/I think I might explode/Now I need to blow my fucking load. ..."
She swoons in adoration, and they're back on track. The power of love, and of song.
They try to tell us their "story," or to sell us their story — which is the larger point — but can't agree on the details. She's told a wrong version so many times, he can't quite grasp what's real anymore. There, but for the grace of God ...
It's not a life-changing event, but the energy electrifies, the music is surprisingly good and the performances are top-tier.
THE BREAK OF NOON | By NEIL LABUTE | GEFFEN PLAYHOUSE, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Wstwd. | Tues.-Fri., 8 p.m., Sat., 3 & 8 p.m., Sun., 2 & 7 p.m. | Through March 6 | (310) 208-5454
CRACK WHORE GALORE — LIVE! | Created by RYAN OLIVER, DANNY ROEW, GRAHAM SIBLEY, TONYA CORNELISSE and GATES McFADDEN | Presented by ENSEMBLE STUDIO THEATER–LOS ANGELES at the ATWATER VILLAGE THEATRE, 3269 Casitas Ave., Atwater Village | Thurs. & Sat., 10:30 p.m. | Through March 12 | ensemblestudiotheatrela.org | (323) 644-1929
