“Why is everyone always cryin’ at your house?” asks Pale (Ryan Kitley) in “Burn This.” Because it’s a Lanford Wilson play. Everyone’s always crying, circumstances are always catastrophic. And because it’s so well-written, it always works.
Choreographer Anna (Kate LoConti) and friends Larry (Jake Szczepaniak) and Burton (Brad Woodard) grieve the loss of creative muse Robbie (Chris Knowlton). Robbie’s brother Pale blows in to inflict his coked-up pain on the household. Cue Wilsonesque catastrophe.
It’s all very eighties, from the melancholy synth rock of Christopher Kriz’s sound design, to the fear and the homophobia that sadly hasn’t changed. Thankfully, Kitley’s train-off-the-rails portrayal is counterbalanced by LoConti’s gentle understatement; their chemistry makes the situation viable. Szczepaniak’s quips make the emotional roller coaster a bit easier to ride and director Linda Gillum manages to keep a lid on it all. Everyone captures that spent feeling you get after a good long cry. (Lisa Buscani)
Shattered Globe Theatre at Theater Wit, 1229 West Belmont, (773)795-8150. Through November 18.
Stiff Upper Lip: A Review of "London Road" at Shattered Globe This British musical seems to pull off the impossible. The mesmerizing but highly complex score requires singers and musicians who can manage its intricate rhythms with precision and still act their songs in the guise of the mostly-lower-middle-class English city dwellers they portray.
RECOMMENDED
