This Sunday marked the closing of Rutgers–NJIT Theater Arts Program’s fall production of The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon at Rutgers-Newark’s Bradley Hall on a thrust stage in an extremely hot black box theater which seats about 200 people. The show is a two-act comedy written by Don Zolidis and directed by Cuchipinoy Productions, a young professional theater company composed of Rutgers and NJIT theater alumni. Zolidis’s script aims to tie together many of the classic Grimm fairy tales including Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and 206 others into a fast-paced comedic romp. Anchored by two narrators, one of each gender, the show presents itself as a pantomime which expects a great deal of audience participation. While the patrons begrudgingly partook in these “Blues Cluesian” moments, the show would have been better served to limit this sort of childish call and response and focus on making more jokes or making the ones that did exist better. The show also draws on vaudevillian influences, in which actors play many roles and are seen conversing out of costume, even deciding to modify the story in progress. While this playfulness does lend itself to a few comedic moments, the ensemble cast’s interactions as actors felt very staged, and ultimately lacked the intended improvisational style that was expected.

The sound design was passable, suffering only from some cheap and ineffective sound gags involving Mickey Mouse’s trademark chuckle, which are handled more adeptly in the script’s stage directions with a large sign. The set, a revolving backdrop that was modified between every scene, was simple, effective, and not distracting, which is a shame since I needed some distraction from the insipid experience of the show. The lighting and costume design were professional yet unremarkable; neither making a clear statement nor ruining the night. Worst though of all was the sheer length of the show, two acts with an intermission, sitting in a blistering hot theater praying for the show to end. The play was further marred by phony affectations, silly strobe kung-fu, inauthentic dialogue, mimed props, headache-inducing fog, ghetto Little Red Riding Hood, unfunny pedophilia, theatrical vomiting backstage, and an implied conceit that the actors thought they were much funnier than the audience did.

The show began slowly, continued slowly, and ended slowly, screeching to a grinding halt for two hours straight, and leaving the audience completely unsatisfied, hungry for the comedy they were promised. While there were quite a few good jokes in the script, they were often delivered so poorly or overacted to the point of histrionics that they were rendered humorless. I think the production’s fatal flaw was was it’s vapid and humdrum portrayal of fanciful tales of old, leaving the audience relieved, not by catharsis, but rather a means to escape the humorless prison in which they were detained. Even the melodramatic moments were so tedious and repetitious that they lacked any discernible pathos.

The actors were bereft of the emotional veracity and authenticity necessary to sell their choices and characters, and they seemed more focused on nonsensical stage business than conveying a coherent plot or theme to the audience. The performers seemed unaware of the speed and pacing requisite for the farcical comedy they endeavored to create, and so many of the jokes fell flat due to awkward timing, improper setups, and unclear choices that I was left unsure of whether they had been given any direction at all. Though, what I think was most tragic about this so called comedy is that Into to the Woods, one of Stephen Sondheim’s musicals, portrays many of the same stories in a cohesive, funny, and entertaining way, without sacrificing the Grimms’ original intent. If only audiences like the ones at NJIT, would start demanding higher quality theater, maybe, just maybe we would get it.

The only redeeming quality of The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon was the “lightning round”, a speedy recap of it’s own claptrap, all in under 5 minutes. Not that I would have paid ten dollars to see that alone, but I would certainly have paid to miss the rest of the show, which was an utter waste of two hours, and a surefire way to get headachy and sweaty on the weekend, as if there aren’t enough of those for free.

I recently had the pleasure of seeing the NJIT-Rutgers theater group’s production of something rather unusual. The Brother’s Grim Spectacularthon is a play that crams 209 of the Brother’s Grim’s collected fairy tales into a two and a half hour production, touching every major one that most of us know by heart: Snow White, Cinderella, Hansel and Grettle, Little Red Riding Hood, and then some.

The story opens with two narrators, one an energetic, eccentric young man and the other an enthusiastic girl. The two of them go through and string along the stories, each one holding an unexpected modern twist. Every character in the Cinderella skit is played by only two people, the female actress playing Cinderella, and the male actor playing every other role (regardless of male or female).

Little Red Riding Hood is portrayed as a tough girl raised “in the hood”. She pulls a pistol on the wolf when he tries to capture her. Rapunzel seems the typical whiny teenage brat, and every other character has hilarious twists to their personalities as well. The script itself is a riot, but the way the cast made the entire production so natural and seamless, with practically no break between jokes, left the audience, including myself, practically rolling out of our chairs.

The entire cast interacts with each other in a way that feels natural. None of the acting or behavior seemed forced, and the humor isn’t old. The script itself is very recent, giving the jokes a taste that greatly appeals to the college audience. My only complaint from the show I saw was that act two lacked a bit of the momentum act one did, but once it got rolling it was just as wonderful.

If you missed it for any reason, you missed something truly great. 5/5 hats.