Pulp Western

Guitar doesn't play camp culture straight

Comments (0) By OCTAVIO ROCA Thursday, Dec 8 2005

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Everyone could be just a tad more over-the-top

Details

Book by Nicholas van Hoogstraten. Music by Martin Silvestri. Lyrics by Joel Higgins. Directed by David Arisco. With Rachel Jones, David Kelley, Stacy Schwartz, Shane R. Tanner, Ken Clement, John Bixler, Terry M. Cain, Francisco "Pancho" Padura, and Henry Gainza. Through December 18. Actors' Playhouse at the Miracle Theatre, 280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables; 305-444-9293, www.actorsplayhouse.org.

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Match: In Match, eccentric Juilliard dance instructor Tobi keeps his full jar of toenail clippings on a living room bookshelf in the cheap apartment he rents on Manhattan’s remote northern edge. This sixtyish former Balanchine dancer has definitely seen better days. Lonely Tobi doesn’t receive many visitors, which is why it’s suspicious that Lisa and her husband Mike have come to interview him for Lisa’s doctoral dissertation about classical dance. “No one ever wants to talk to the choreographer,” Tobi coyly tells them. As the interview quickly turns into interrogation during a riveting first act, it becomes more and more apparent that Mike, not Lisa, is the real interviewer here, and that, no, they don’t want to talk to Tobi about choreography. Match conveys playwright Stephen Belber’s true handle on natural dialogue, and even though the second act initially lags, you still gamble that this thriller will be fully realized. Director Richard Jay Simon and actors Gordon McConnell, Paul Tei, and Claire Tyler bring it off in the end for a twisted Hallmark Hall of Fame finale. — Dave Amber Through December 18. Mosaic Theatre, 12200 W. Broward Blvd., Plantation; 954-577-8243.

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