Day: 3
Show: 9
By: Ferrari McSpeedy Theatrical Productions
Created by: Mike Fotis and Joe Bozic
Location: U of M Rarig Center Thurst
Summary: To save their Indiana prison from being shut down, a warden and his director of arts and leisure decide to enter a prison theater competition with an adaptation of the hit basketball movie Hoosiers.
Highlights: I've never seen the movie so I probably didn't get a lot of the references (I gather that the plot and characters in the play mirrored those in the movie), and I wasn't laughing nearly as much as my neighbors, but I still found it amusing and entertaining. How can you go wrong with "competitive prison theater?" The cast is great, led by Sam Landman, who portrays the warden with utter conviction and sincerity, and Mike Fotis, the straight man amidst all these crazy characters who populate the prison. And I enjoyed seeing double-Fringe performer Andy Kraft (who is also in Comedy vs. Calories: FIGHT!) as the "Jupitor Jesus" worshiping inmate. My favorite scenes were the clever montages, something you see often on film but rarely onstage. It's well-done silliness.