Undershorts Really Is Adult Fare – Knight Foundation
Arts

Undershorts Really Is Adult Fare

City Theatre’s late night Undershorts really is adult fare. Just ask my 18-year-old son, who I had to pry off the couch along with his 17-year-old girlfriend, to get them to accompany his old mom to the theater. Now that he’s legally an adult, he can’t stand any silly, kid stuff. No one is more adult than an 18 year old. So imagine his surprise to find himself laughing out loud — no, guffawing — at the silly, adult stuff served up at the Arsht Center between 10pm and midnight last Friday night.

While he was certainly the youngest in the audience, the crowd definitely skewed younger than most South Florida theater draws, which is good news for those perpetually worried about the future of theater. I’m so thrilled that my son liked something I dragged him to that I’m going to let him review the show (well, okay, unless you want a review in the form of a text message, I’ll just have to write down what he said).

If you’d like to see a review by another 18-year-old, I recommend this in Alexis Scheer’s delightful South Florida theater blog Playground.

On “Banging Ann Coulter”: You kind of have to know a lot about Ann Coulter to get all of that, but it’s still funny. What does he know about Ann Coulter? She’s that crazy lady who’s always screaming on Fox. Hmm, I didn’t even know he watched Fox. Also, you don’t have to know much about her cuz I’m pretty sure everything the playwright Michael Elyanow presented was made up…

On Susan Cinoman’s “Beds”: That guy in just his underwear [aka Chaz Mena] was really funny.

Laura Easton’s “It Was Fun While It Lasted”: Was that supposed to be about the United States? Girlfriend: It was confusing, but the way that girl [Erin Joy Schmidt] talked was funny.

Rolin Jones, “Extremely”: Those two guys [Scott Genn and David Hemphill] were really funny. They were the same ones in that debt play? That was definitely the best

Joshua James, “The Pap”: This was really funny too. Especially that woman [Elena Maria Garcia] and that guy [Hemphill]. Oh, that was him again. That was hilarious. We had a brief family debate over whether a moment when Hemphill’s gynecologist hits Garcia’s nervous patient with a glove in the head was actually in the script. There is plenty of slapstick in this short play, but I don’t think anyone could accurately hit that mark with every show, the way Hemphill did. But maybe he’s just that good. By the way both actors were trying not to laugh, until Garcia finally had to cover her face with her hospital gown, though, I kind of think it was spontaneous.

The 15th Annual Summer Shorts Festival, presented by City Theatre and the Adrienne Arsht Center, runs through June27 in the Carnival Studio Theater in the Ziff Ballet Opera House of the Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts; 1300 Biscayne Blvd., Miami; 305-755-9401 x12; www.arshtcenter.org.