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Is this gratitude Im experiencing, or appreciation?
Is this emotion due to my own isolation or the thing itself?
But at least technical admiration is unambiguous.
You know what youre feeling when someone sinks a basket from a whole court away.
And on that level, Michael Breslin and Patrick Foleys berserker comedyCircle Jerkisa coup.
For once, heres a digital-theatrical performance that wouldnt be better in person.
(It speaks in rhyming couplets and drools.)
Wigs are wiggy and sometimes applied sideways; costume changes are chaotic scrambles that are sometimes caught (oops!
(The script calls this a Meme Ballet.)
In contrast,Circle Jerkoccupies both our screen and their stage, comfortably manipulating both media.
Obsession with models, though, may be why the 100-minute show slows down.
Do you get this joke about Broadway message boards?
Do you hear the echoes of Moliere andThe Wizard of Ozand Leo Bersani?
The show sneers whether you catch the reference or not.
Exposition is the shows sharpest writing, quippy and wicked.
I am a prophet in the iconic tradition of all fabulous Greek gays, says Jurgen.
Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Maria Callas, Nia Vardalos.
But while Jurgen mocks the idea of plot,Circle Jerkdoes actually suffer from its lack.
Causes dont prompt effects, so characters will occasionally just … shoot each other.
If youre caught up in the mood of pop-culture Insta-scrolling, then this randomness will feel exhilarating and hilarious.
(Die, Bussy, Die!)
Its a bit like that: too much attention, and too little.
But Foley and Breslin and Rodriguez are also damn good at it.
They wriggle and shrug and tip their bowler hats.
In Fosses hands, vaudeville got sexierafterit died.
In these new hands, maybe the same goes for theater.
Circle Jerkis streaming performances atcirclejerk.livethrough October 23, and available in recorded form after that through November 7.
