VIEWPOINTS – POLICE COPS IN SPACE & YOGIEBOGEYBOX: Proving that derivative theater can be thrillingly original

For years now, a number of fans of commercial Broadway theater have been vocal about mourning the demise of the completely original musical (with Dear Evan Hansen being a recent shining exception). According to these folks, most everything these days is unfortunately derived or adapted from another genre of art, particularly film. Just look at this year’s Tony nominees for Best Musical – Frozen, The Band’s Visit, Spongebob Squarepants, and Mean Girls – and you see what I mean.

But is this really a trend that has maligned us only of late? And why characterize this act as “maligning”? If you think about it, at the end of the day, isn’t most art derivative? Indeed, during the golden age of the Broadway musical, many of the shows we now consider indisputable classics were actually directly drawn from literary works or other plays (Hollywood was still in its infancy). Guys and Dolls, Oklahoma!, Carousel, and My Fair Lady – just to name a few – are all more or less simply adaptations. Most blatantly, Carmen Jones, which is currently being revived at Off-Broadway’s Classic Stage Company, was reworked by Oscar Hammerstein II from the popular opera Carmen; he even recycled Bizet’s score nearly lock-stock-and-barrel. This phenomena isn’t just prevalent in theater; hallowed works in the worlds of ballet and opera also heavily draw inspiration from other creations.

If you buy the argument that art is inherently derivative, then it makes sense that the key to creating works that last is to ensure that they stand on their own merits. As much as I delighted in Elevator Repair Service’s Everyone’s Fine with Virginia Woolf (which is currently running at the Abrons Arts Center), it left many of those not familiar with Albee’s play in the dark. Similarly, Mallory Catlett’s This Was the End – drawn from Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, and which I recently raved about – also falls in the same category.

Zachary Hunt and Nathan Parkinson in "Police Cops in Space" at 59E59 Theater's Brits Off Broadway.

Zachary Hunt and Nathan Parkinson in “Police Cops in Space” at 59E59 Theater’s Brits Off Broadway.

Which brings us to a pair of vastly divergent fringy productions that I recently saw, both of which actually do stand on their own. First up was the London-based Pretend Men’s insanely entertaining hour-long Police Cops in Space (RECOMMENDED), one of the final offerings at this year’s Brits Off Broadway series at 59E59 Theaters. Almost immediately, it becomes clear that the show is inspired by Spaghetti Westerns, as well as a healthy dose of Star Wars and even Wayne’s World. But as energetically and skillfully performed by the trio of Zachary Hunt, Nathan Parkinson, and Tom Roe, the lighter-than-air, almost throwaway Police Cops in Space – which runs in repertory with the less extravagantly “out there” Police Cops – is giddy fun (with a number of tantalizing homoerotic moments) which leaves you wanting more on its own terms.

Moe Yousef's in his "YOGIEBOGEYBOX" at Target Margin Theater's Sinbad Lab festival.

Moe Yousef’s in his “YOGIEBOGEYBOX” at Target Margin Theater’s Sinbad Lab festival.

Way out in Sunset Park in Brooklyn, I was also able to catch the final performance of the brief run of the hybrid performance piece YOGIEBOGEYBOX (HIGHLY RECOMMENDED), the last entry in Target Margin Theater’s Sinbad Lab, a festival deconstructing “The One Thousand and One Nights”. YOGIEBOGEYBOX is Target Margin associate artistic director Moe Yousef’s attempt at collapsing the sprawling, complex underlying tale – or at least a portion of it – into a compact, suggestive, but still nuanced tone poem that highlights our shared humanity and capacity for artistic expression. The result is an absolutely exquisite meditation on cross-cultural intersections via musical traditions (in lieu of storytelling, or verbal, traditions), with an emphasis on time-flattening drone music. I wasn’t prepared for the visceral impact that the organic piece would have on me. Despite the work’s various musical influences, Mr. Yousef’s mesmerizing, albeit brief, show is clearly and astonishingly very much of the same fabric. In these two cases, everything old is indeed new again.

 

POLICE COPS IN SPACE
Off-Broadway, Play
Brits Off Broadway at 59E59 Theaters
55 minutes (without an intermission)
Through July 1

YOGIEBOGEYBOX
Off-Broadway, Performance
Sinbad Lab at Target Margin Theater
50 minutes (without an intermission)
Closed

 

Categories: Off-Broadway, Theater

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