June 2006 Archives

Superman Returns

posted by Cheshire on Fri, Jun 30, 2006
in Irrelevance

(Spoilers follow. Read at your own risk.)

Since Impact is the go-to Bay Area theatre company for superhero plays (The Wake-Up Crew and Meanwhile, Back at the Super Lair..., but let's give props also to Prince Gomolvilas's Fabulous Adventures of Captain Queer), I think a review of Superman Returns is in order.

I really wanted to like this movie. I really did. I was a huge fan of Superman and Superman II when I was a kid. Not so much Superman III, and I don't even think I saw IV. But that supposedly puts me right in line with Bryan Singer, who's said in a number of places that Superman Returns is meant to follow II. If that was indeed his goal, I think Singer succeeds. Unfortunately, I'm not sure that's a good thing.

My two main problems with the movie are that 1) it's not big enough and 2) it's not really about anything. Here's the gist: five years ago Superman (Brandon Routh, looking and acting the part just fine) left without saying goodbye, and now he's back. Lois Lane (an annoying Kate Bosworth) has moved on, mostly: she has a young son and a baby-daddy (but she's the commitment-phobic one), and she has a Pulitzer for her poison-pen piece, "Why the World Doesn't Need Superman." Lex Luthor has been released from prison because Superman missed the parole hearing (what, he's the only one who has an opinion about Luthor's supervillainy?), and now he's swindled a rich old lady's family out of their entire inheritance, including a big boat. He's off in the big boat to the arctic circle, to get the secrets of the Fortress of Solitude.

What's he going to use those secrets for? Eh, let's not give it away too much, but it's cartoonishly big, not dangerously big. This is Superman, for chrissakes -- the biggest superhero of all time. He needs a huge supervillain to go up against and a huge danger, and I never bought into the concept that Luthor was going to radically re-Pangaea the world. Even when he puts his plan into action, I barely believed it.

The personal stakes are pretty low, too: Superman's five-year absence from Earth is explained but not fully justified. Lois may have moved on, but the planet is pretty happy to have Superman back. There's no backlash, no lingering bitterness, just huge gratitude. The person with the most at stake in the movie is Richard, the aforementioned baby-daddy, who's worried (rightly so) that Lois is still in love with Superman and will dump him now that the Caped Crusader is back in town.

Kevin Spacey is great as Lex Luthor, but the character himself is thin. One of the thrills of Smallville, a surprisingly terrific show, is that it's a harrowing portrait of the descent of Lex Luthor from Clark Kent's friend to Superman's arch-enemy. In Smallville, Lex is a tragic figure; in Superman Returns, he's just a bad man with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, a bunch of stupid henchmen, and one stupid henchwoman (Parker Posey, who isn't given enough to do).

And in the end, if there isn't a huge threat, at least I wanted the movie to be about something. The Spider-Man, my favorite recent superhero movie, is about accepting the weight of responsibility. Batman Begins, my second-favorite, is about exorcising personal demons and the questionable merits of vigilantism. Even Bryan Singer's own X-Men movies are about being outsiders in society.

The closest this movie gets is a halfhearted meditation on what it means to be alone in the universe. A worthy subject, but one that's never fully explored. Superman's absence and quest should have been a huge part of this movie, not a barely explained prologue.

Oh, well -- hey, Netflix! When's my next Smallville DVD coming?

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Zay Amsbury reading

posted by Melissa on Thu, Jun 29, 2006
in Local Theatre

Hey, kids! Remember Zay Amsbury? He was Impact's resident playwright for several years. He wrote a bunch of kickass plays for us, including Sweet Self, The Wake-Up Crew and Love is the Law. Well, Zay is headed off to grad school at NYU! He's having a reading of his work TOMORROW NIGHT (Fri 6/30) as a fundraiser. I'd be there myself, but I'll be parked on my parents' couch in Arizona watching 16 channels of baseball on cable (Why do Jews always retire to either Arizona or Florida? What's up with that? What's wrong with staying in the Bay Area? But I digress.)

Here are the details, which I, like the lazy cuss I am, just copied and pasted out of the email sent to me. Go to this event. You will NOT regret it. Zay is awesome. If you can't go, you can purchase a CD or an MP3 recording by contacting Carrie Cordeiro.

> Live Transmission II
> a reading by Zay Amsbury
>
> Friday, 30 June 2006
> 762 Clementina St.
> San Francisco, CA 94103
>
> 8:00pm ~V 930pm, reading
> 9:30 ~V 11:00pm, tunes from DJ rrrus, wine, dancing
>
> $15 recommended donation
>
> A world premiere of the short stories
>
> Friendster Girl
> Slow Company
> Britpop Is Dead
> and, if the demand is high, a re-reading of the audience favorite from
> Live Transmission I
>
> Dancepants
>
> As you may or may not know, Zay's heading to Grad School at The New
> School for Drama in New York City this fall.
>
> He can't quite afford it.
>
> So in order to help him out with moving costs, first month's rent, and
> maybe a new laptop, he's holding a fund raising reading in San Francisco.
>
> The recommended donation is $15, but absolutely no one will be turned
> away.
>
> If you can spare it, $15 is good. If you want to give more, so be it. If
> you've got nothing, come anyway. The more the merrier.
>
> If you don't love at least one of the stories, you get your money back.
> Period.
>
> Seating is limited!
>
> Please reserve your seats ASAP by an email with ~reservations~ in the
> subject line to zay@zayamsbury.net and tell me how many seats you want.
> You'll only receive a reply if we're sold out.
>
> 762 Clementia is wheelchair accessible.
>
> Live Transmission II is an Alphabets End Production.

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Evil Empire Comedy

posted by Melissa on Thu, Jun 29, 2006
in Local Theatre

Go see Evil Empire Comedy at La Val's! They only have four performances left -- Fri 6/30, Sat 7/1, Fri 7/7 and Sat 7/8. If you want to knock back a beer, laugh your ass off, and shell out very little to do so, point your rear end in the direction of La Val's! Tickets really are stupid cheap. Leaves money left over for more beer! Hell yeah. You can check them out more thoroughly here.

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Would Carey Perloff do this?

posted by Melissa on Thu, Jun 29, 2006
in Irrelevance

YES that's my silhouette available for download in the wallpapers section of Impact Crap. Soon you'll be able to see the real thing. I ask you -- would any other AD of any other theatre do this? I think not. And while being the only Bay Area AD with pictures of herself in lingerie on the theatre's website (and in an Impact exclusive cocktail book -- more on that later) probably only shows a basic lack of good judgment, I still put it to you: What other ADs love their company so much that they'll pose in trashy lingerie for it? Tony Taccone? Are you reading this?

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Renowned sexologist Carol Queen to read from her latest book at Impact's Night of Sin

posted by Jennifer on Wed, Jun 28, 2006
in News

Pleasure activist Carol Queen, founding director of the Center for Sex & Culture and Staff Sexologist at Good Vibrations, will be reading from her latest book, Whipped, at Impact's Night of Sin.

And you think you're naughty.

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Clever is...

posted by Diana on Tue, Jun 27, 2006
in Irrelevance

Des: "He's going to feel emasculated"

Melissa: "I don't think you understand the male psyche."

Cheshire: "He's gonna feel emBONERated."

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Patsy Ramsey dies

posted by Jennifer on Mon, Jun 26, 2006
in News

The mother of JonBenet Ramsey has died. What does this have to do with Impact? You'll just have to come see Colorado when it opens September 14th.

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Impact recommends: Hunter Gatherers

posted by Cheshire on Sun, Jun 25, 2006
in Local Theatre

Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, playwright of this season's Colorado, has another show happening right now at the Thick House, Hunter Gatherers. It's the first full-length play presented by sketch comedians extraordinaire Killing My Lobster, and it's getting a chunk of good reviews from the Contra Costa Times, the SF Bay Guardian, and elsewhere. Don't wait--the show only has a couple of weeks left.

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Impact recommends: We Are Not These Hands

posted by Cheshire on Sun, Jun 25, 2006
in Local Theatre

Crowded Fire, an awesome SF-based theatre company, presents the world premiere of Sheila Callaghan's We Are Not These Hands at the Ashby Stage in Berkeley (Shotgun Players' theatre). Impact has produced two of Sheila's plays, Scab and last season's Crumble (Lay Me Down, Justin Timberlake). We love Sheila, obviously, and we love Crowded Fire--they're two great tastes that go great together!

Ever since their school blew up, teenagers Belly and Moth have spent their time peering through the windows of an illegal internet cafe hoping to cross over into the mysterious realms they can only glimpse on the screen. When Leather, a pampered scholar from the other side of the river, arrives to do research on their culture, the girls take particular interest in this strange man with a secret. As their relationship develops, the encounter threatens to explode their understanding of history and forge a connection that will save them all.

We Are Not These Hands starts tonight and plays through July 16. Plus, just for being an Impact fan, you get half-price tickets! To reserve your $10 tickets, email erin@crowdedfire.org with "Impact" in the subject line. Include your name, the number in your party, and the date you would like to attend (excluding opening night, 6/27). Or simply show up at the Ashby Stage on the night of the performance, and say the password "Impact" to the box office manager (excluding opening night, 6/27).

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This season goes up to 11

posted by Cheshire on Sun, Jun 25, 2006
in News

Our 11th season is huge. HUGE. We're presenting an unprecedented six-play season, overstuffed with every single thing we do best--new plays, a badass bard, a new round of Impact Briefs--and infused them all with a generous portion of sin. That's right, it's the Season of Sin at Impact, and every production contains at least five of the seven deadly sins. Now that's some quality sinning.

Not only that, but this season marks our first-ever benefit, Impact's Night of Sin. It's chock-full of performances, games, and other activities we're sure you'll regret the next morning. Mark your calendars for Saturday, August 12. Tickets go on sale Monday, July 3.

And one more huge thing for our 11th season and beyond: you're looking at it, homeslice--it's a fresh, hot website redesign. It's wider, sleeker, and bloggier, and it's got some cool new features:

• a revamped Impact Crap section, now with our new T-shirts and new downloadable wallpapers for your desktop
• a brand-new Press Room section, your one-stop shopping for PR images for reviews as well as to help you promote Impact on your own site (thanks!)
• a blog we're calling Splatter, a name that will be familiar to members of our mailing list. Gone is a generic news section that was annoying (and hard to remember) to update. Now you can get the latest news more quickly, because we can post news from wherever the hell we are. Plus, you can subscribe to the RSS 2.0 or Atom feeds and get Impact news in your own feeder.
• a new section for the Impact Ninja-Pirates, now with a leader board so you can make sure you're staying on top. What? You're not a Ninja-Pirate yet? Dude. You're missing out.
• and all of this is built in valid standards-compliant XHTML and CSS, which may mean nothing to you, but if it does mean something to you, then we're betting you were probably happy to read that.

So get ready for a huge 11th season from Impact. And leave us comments--because now you can.

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