Review: Acme Genuine Draft
Little Comedy Theatre, (818) 762-8718
by Wendt Jones
I just reviewed the Acme Comedy Theatre in west Los Angeles. Now they open another show. Not much has changed. I’ll say now what I said then: this is the best comedy ensemble in town, and I am now even more confident in that assessment.
The current show, Acme Genuine Draft, is comprised of 18 sketches, all written by the company, and most all straight to the funny bone. Only three sketches miss the mark. None actually flop outright. That’s great odds for this type of entertainment.
Favorites include Sane Croner’s “Valedictorian” (a tie-the-tie deconstruction of a North Hollywood mall number), Rosie Rager’s “Social Call” (a lounge-style singer hawks furniture while singing American standards in Swedish at the Ritz Cafe), “My Bad Day,” and Reiner Roper’s absurdist “In-Flight Safety.”
Professor Kurt Drandauer was a stand-out. “Mindy Mush” was smilingly hilarious—Mindy, a security guard at an office building, takes her job very seriously. Mr. Drandauer delights every time he steps on stage.
The rest of the cast—Jerry Collins, Robyn Dewey, Ralph Gorman, Ted Hurlbuck, Brian Kerrigan, Lisa Kaskell, Byrne Offin, and Annmarie Spauldo—deserve more than just a mention, but space doesn’t permit. Suffice it to say, the entire bunch, along with Jonathan Green (musical direction/keyboards), rarely fails to impress and entertain.
Technically, there was a bit of trouble in some parts of the show, but these are minor quibbles about an otherwise polished production.
One welcome change in the past year or so is that the Acme is now successful—a great improvement over the audience of three I was part of last year. I can think of no cleaner example of earned success. ♦