Xanadu: A reason to go to Westwego

NoDef Drama Critic Jim Fitzmorris shines the spotlight on the local theatrical explosion that follows JazzFest: 5 shows opening in 2 weeks.

With few exceptions, theatre has taken a wise break over the last two weeks. After all, only offerings with marketing budgets the size of a Broadway show could possibly compete with Trombone Shorty, Tom Petty, and Bruce Springsteen. In essence, it has been, with apologies to The Boss, an Esplanade Avenue Freeze Out for any cultural event not directly related to the great outdoor party at The Fairgrounds. It is a break in an otherwise busy theatrical season.

However, that does not mean the theatre scene has not been busy. A number of high profile theatrical companies have used the break to prepare major offerings. Immediately after The Festival closes, five shows will open in a span of less than two weeks: a gender-bending camp beach blanket, a gloriously tacky musical, a classic Greek political satire, one of Shakespeare’s great comedies, and a one woman show featuring the talents of Ricky Graham.

Here's what to expect over this second culturally bursting fortnight:

Psycho Beach Party (Mid City Theatre): Basically, it is a case of Charles Busch taking Annette, Frankie and Gidget to Hell. This, now classic, camp piece slams Beach Blanket Bingo into Mommie Dearest and mixes in just a little Suddenly Last Summer for good measure. Directed by Fred Nuncio and starring Matthew Mickal as the lovelorn teenager Chicklet, this tale of deviant sexual awakening under the warm California sun is one part Freud and all Busch. Opens Friday, May 11

Xanadu (Jefferson Performing Arts Society): A much better stage musical than movie. Much better. New York Times' theatre critic Charles Isherwood called it "simultaneously indefensible and irresistible." Do not be turned off by having to drive to JPAS' Teatro Westwego on the West Bank. It is a beautiful theatre and a sublimely ridiculous show. If you care about the preservation of Eighties kitsch rollerskating musicals at all, you will make the effort. Director Dane Rhodes commandeers a cast to the music of Electric Light Orchestra. Opens Friday, May 11

Lysistrata (Cripple Creek): Politics, sex, and contemporary relevance. It sounds like a Cripple Creek show to me. Director Emile Whelan plans to invigorate Aristophanes' tale of an entire city of women refusing to do the deed until the endless wars of Greece of come to an end. Whelan sums up her approach as follows, "As young people people who have now spent half our lives in a state of muggy, deceptive war, we felt it was time to wade the deeper waters of our American citizenry. Through a 2500 year old brutal comedy." Featured among the ladies unleashed at The Allways Lounge are Kerry Cahill, Jennifer Pagan, and Madison Curry. Opens Friday, May 18

As You Like It (The NOLA Project): It turns out that The NOLA Project enjoys their life in the park "like the old Robin Hood." After last year's post Jazz Fest success of A Midsummer Night's Dream, the gang hopes to summon the magic into The Besthoff Sculpture Garden once again. The tale of Rosalind, the she-who-becomes-a-he to survive in the not-so-dangerous Forest of Arden, is directed by company member Sam Dudley and features the usual suspects including James Bartelle, Kate Kuen, and Jason Kirkpatrick. Opens Wednesday, May 9

Shirley Valentine (Southern Rep City Series): Director Marieke Gaboury describes her experience in collaborating on Willy Russell's celebrated one-woman show with actor Ricky Graham as, "lucky - to work on a such a beautifully written play with an enormously gifted actor. Ricky gets Shirley's journey in a way that transcends gender - he's not a man in a dress - he just completely becomes Shirley Valentine." Part of Southern Rep's City Series, Shirley Valentine continues the theatre's nomadic existence by taking the stage at The CAC. Opens Wednesday, May 9