The title of this show reminded me of the pool party scene in La La Land where Emma Stone requests a song from the band. It was I Ran (but funny).
As to the play itself, I’d love to take my red pen to the script. It provides a lot of information and has quite a few funny moments, but it tries to do too much and winds up being a little inconsistent, scattered and too long for it’s own good, losing some impact along the way and drifting into nonsense near the end.
There really wasn’t a need for an out-of-place Jennifer Coolidge impression (there never is) and the penis joke scene could easily be snipped.
That said, Atra Asdou, the playwright and lead, is a force. Her character is memorable and her interaction with the audience is first rate.
There was some interesting staging, including the boxing match depicting the battle between Iraq and Iran and the British-devouring quicksand that included an allusion to Dune (also too long) Sandworms, though I thought the lightning sand from The Princess Bride might have been a better reference.
And the show made the best use of video backdrop maps since Spamalot. High praise indeed.
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