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Health & Fitness

'Kill Me, Deadly' at the Phoenix Stage Company - My Review

Smart noir parody starring Rob Richnavsky

Kill Me, Deadly, running at The Phoenix Stage Company in Naugatuck, is a parody of the detective noir film genre that is packed with "romance, intrigue, and murder" and set changes, and costume changes. More about that later. It features the brilliant Rob Richnavsky as Charlie Nickels, a gumshoe in seedy Los Angeles, who is investigating the murder of a client, Lady Clairmont (played to perfection by Alana Kingsley in her PSC debut) and the theft of her 300 karat diamond. The plot features plot twist after plot twist with multiple characters played by only 11 actors. The audience may try to keep up, or can simply laugh at the goings on and the witty one liners. The core of the Maple Hill Dinner and a Show group enjoyed the first Friday performance, for which I had a complimentary ticket.

Charlie's wise-cracking secretary, played beautifully by my onstage sister from The Last Supper Marsha Gaylord, is the one doing all the crime solving. Ms. Gaylord also had to transform into Jaime, the Latin gardener with a great accented English vocabulary, and she pulled it off. Veronica, the sexy daughter of Lady Clairmont, is played by the smoldering and impossibly talented Heather Graham. Joshua Luszczak (who goes for a three-peat here as he also appeared in the PSC's Dial M for Murder and Murdered to Death) plays her nerdy brother Clive.

The femme fatale Mona, who captures Charlie's affections and suspicions, is played by the lovely Emily Simmons in her PSC debut. She grabbed hold of the juicy role. Mark E. Rees sported a new haircut to play various mobsters and a cop. Daniel R. Willey also morphs into various mobsters (including Bugsy Seagal,) a cop and a guy in a morning suit and pulls them all off with aplomb. Leland M. Schick, Lori Poulin, Lori Richnavsky (who are all stage managed by Laurie Phillips, the third in the trio) play a total of ten parts between them.

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In the starring role of Charlie Nickels, Mr. Richnavsky is as amazing as ever. He appears in almost every scene, has an impossible number of lines to remember, and makes it all look easy. He is an educational assistant from East Haven and, along with Ms. Graham and Mr. Willey, is a member of Abridged, the PSC comedy troupe.

Ed Bassett works his magic as the director of this piece and helps move all the scenery around even more than he usually does. This show required the PSC to break its own rule about doing plays with limited set changes and they did it well.  Brian Elser is in charge of the sound and period music designed by Mr. Bassett. Mr. Richnavsky choreographed the effective fight scenes. The clever rear projection set was very effective. The specialty prop design and construction of Charlie's automobile credit goes to John Poulin. Lori Poulin, who is often found backstage at the PSC, was in charge of the myriad of props and Mr. Bassett did a great job with the period costumes and with dressing the entire cast as hobos, while Ms. Richnavsky took care of the hair and wigs. Yaritza Nazario consulted on the period make-up design.

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continues this weekend and next. Check out the Facebook event

Coming to the PSC in April is Arsenic and Old Lace directed by Kathy Cook. One of the performances will feature a Tea with the Brewster Sisters, where patrons will get to meet the cast members after the show.

Mr. Bassett also proudly announced that One Night with Fanny Brice by Chip Deffaa will be produced in New York City at the 13th Street Theater and Mary Cantoni Johnson will star. I thoroughly enjoyed this production when it work shopped at the PSC and hope the show does well.

The Phoenix Stage Company is in the middle of their 2nd Annual Fund Campaign. After an exceptionally hard winter where they almost had to close their doors for good, they were able to overcome the shortfall and the shows will go on -- for now. They appreciate all tax-deductible contributions that will help them continue to bring many more productions to our hidden gem of a community theatre.

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