chuckography

Dial "M" for Musical....

The Emmett Robinson Theatre was a nice surprise last night for Spoleto's Addicted To Bad Ideas: Peter Lorre's 20th Century.

I had not been to this venue before and found it has a terrific sound system and great sight lines with steep comfortable stadium seating.

All of those elements came into play as we were introduced to Peter Lorre, the young Berliner plucked from obscurity in 1931 by director Fritz Lang and cast in "M" to portray a deranged child killer.

Unfortunately, Lorre played whining and unlikable bad guys for the next 30 years until he crashed to earth in a Hollywood cloud of drugs.

Hmmmm..this is a pretty far out basis for a musical.

It works very well though due to punk rock legend Jack Terricloth, who sang and danced the lead role and his extremely high energy band of talented musicians World/Inferno Friendship Society .

We also saw real time live media video feeds and 3-screen rapidly changing projected images.

Down front, the mosh pit was filled with some very excited and expressive SUPER fans.

Because it was a LOUD live punk cabaret kind of evening the ushers handed out sheets of lyrics... and, complimentary ear plugs.

Word is Inferno is working on a more upbeat topic for their next epic "A Prairie Home Companion."

I would certainly go to see that.

(Please click on the photos to see amazing detail.)

Labels: "M", cabaret punk band, Emmett Robinson Theatre, Fritz Lang, Jack Terricloth, Peter Lorre, World/Inferno Friendship Society

posted by chucker @ 5:05 PM