The Nerd
THEATER
In November 1980, Willum Cubbert celebrated his 34 th birthday. Willum is an architect working for a nightmare of a boss, his girlfriend Tansy is leaving to become a meteorologist in Washington, D.C., and the IRS is bringing down the mother of all tax audits. Life can't get any worse, or so Willum thinks.
Among the friends who turn out for his birthday party is Rick Steadman, a man who had at one point saved Willum's life in Vietnam. In return, Willum offered to help Rick in any way.
Rick crashes the party and then William's life. Rick ruins William's career and love life and makes a general pain of himself with his horrible manners and incessant fascination with learning the tambourine (at all hours of the night and morning). With the aid of Tansy and his ambiguously homosexual friend Axel, Willum takes on the task of trying to rid himself of his new roommate without being ungrateful or blatantly rude.
This situational comedy by Larry Shue is a gut-busting hoot. Ken Remmert plays the roommate from hell with such panache that one cannot help but feel
sorry for Craig Benton's Willum.
The company is talented and the sets and costumes take you back to the "hip pad" of the 1980s.
Clad in gaucho pants, Jennifer Mays is a wonderful Tansy. She and Benton have good chemistry. Throw Ron Megee into the mix as the wise-cracking, pessimistic drama queen with a love for Jack Daniels and the show's chuckles never seem to stop.
Kip Niven, Licia Watson and P.J. Lawhon serve as a wonderful set of characters to fill out the cast and make the evening resonate with laughter (and screams, and shouts, and crashing dishes). It's a show you should see if you're up in Kansas City this February with $23 in your pocket (or $46 if you want to take that special somebody out for Valentine's Day).
American Heartland Theatre 2450 Grand Blvd Suite 314, Kansas City, Mo.
Ben Smith
★★★★
CAPOTE
Director Bennett Miller's acclaimed film, Capote, discusses the repercussions of four senseless murders through the eyes of the larger-than-life personality of Truman Capote.
Capote tells the story of how Truman Capote came to write In Cold Blood, the revolutionary non-fiction novel about the deaths of a family of four, the Clutters, by Perry Edward Smith and Richard Hickock in Holcomb, Kansas in 1959. Unable to find a rumored $10,000 in the family's farmhouse, Smith goes on a rampage and kills the family with a
facet of Capote: his charm, arrogance sharp wilt, graciousness and alienation
For the most part, this dark and layered film succeeds, due to a tight script and strong supporting performances. Philip Seymour Hoffman brilliantly embodies every
MOVIE
bullet to each head.
This film explores the eerie and tense relationship between Capote and Smith as well as Capote's friendship with author Harper Lee. Catherine Keener, as Lee, is the wonderfully level- headed counterpart to Capote's bravado. Clifton Collins Jr.gives a sturdy performance as the menacing Perry, capturing both the monster and the quiet man within.
During much of this film Truman Capote is seen as a brilliant and misunderstood bystander who desperately tries to find logic in a senseless and hideous crime.
This is an engaging and devastating film. Yet, despite Hoffman's flawless performance and a few laughs, Capote still feels almost as cold as the murders themselves.
Liberty Hall Rated:R, 98 minutes
★★★
Sarah Tucker