In writer-director Daisuke Tsuji’s cracklingly clever tour de force, which takes place on a planet of apes from which Roddy McDowell is conspicuously absent, a group of actors playing monkeys schmutz up their hair, cover themselves with brown paint, squawk and go chee-chee-chee in the aisles, and even toss feces at the audience. (You can examine the contents for yourself.) Tsuji’s amusing and ironic play tells the story of a strapping young monkey (Randy Thompson), who dreams of becoming a human being. His main reason for this wish is so he can fall in love with a sweet, human girl (Olivia Choate), who, in turn, wishes only that she could become a sexy monkey gal. Act 1 consists of the monkey boy’s Siddhartha-like attempts to find his place in the world — he participates in what appears to be a simian rave (crisply and dynamically choreographed with dazzling Janet Jackson–esque moves by Anne Rene Brashier) and then heads to Monkey College. Just when one... More >>>