For the wildcard part of the “The Art of Choosing,” Samantha, Jillian and I decided to attend a performance of Tail! Spin!. Tail! Spin!, created by Mario Correa, is a satire of recent US political sex scandals. Correa created the script using only the words the politicians had used surrounding the course of their scandal. This led to the shows intriguing tagline: “A new comedy texted, Tweeted, told by your elected leaders.” Tail! Spin! was performed at the Lynn Redgrave Theater at Culture Project
, and consisted of an ensemble of five hilarious actors: Arnie Burton as Representative Mark Foley, Sean Dugan as Senator Larry Craig, Tom Galantich as Governor Mark Sanford, Nate Smith as the infamous NY Representative Anthony Weiner, and Saturday Night Live star Rachel Dratch as the women who were “victims” of the scandals (and also as Barbara Walters during a rather interesting interview).
Tail! Spin! holds true to the off broadway culture. It was performed in a small theater for a relatively small audience. Its has an obscene focus: the topic of sex scandals, which is something that occasionally appears headlined in the media. It attracted a specific demographic (mostly older, senior adults), as noticed by the audience that night. Nonetheless, our little trio of 18 year olds thoroughly enjoyed the show. It was performed on a mostly empty stage, except for several chairs and a podium that appeared every now and then. The actors, stage lighting, and sound effects did an adept job at creating various settings and scenarios: be it a court room, TV interview, press interview, or even a bathroom.
The show was informative as it was entertaining. The three of us walked in mostly knowing only about Weiner and his Twitter catastrophe. Yet by the end of the night, each of us were able to intelligently crack a joke on Mark Sanford’s exploits in Argentina, or on Larry Craig’s “lewd conduct” that took place within a men’s bathroom stall.
There were no complaints about the show that evening (except for maybe getting back row seats when I was pretty sure I purchased front row seats). Because the cast consisted of such a small ensemble, each actor had to realize multiple characters. Arguably, they did so seamlessly. An a
ctor would switch from a politician, to an interviewer, to a child talking to a 40 year old man on Facebook with sheer ease. Most outstanding had to be Rachel Dratch, who would switch from a seductive and enticing woman to a loving and considerate wife at the snap of a finger (see her in action). Overall, the show itself flowed nicely with four separate incidents presented in a single, unifying manner.
Tail! Spin! does a great job at presenting the obscure theme of political sex scandals in an intriguingly humorous and surprising way. At the end of the show, the three of us could not help but find ourselves in a slight amazement. A general sense of shock came over us as we thought “Did they really say that?” Are our elected politicians, voted to represent us in our government, capable of such raunchy acts? We could not help but chuckle (and shake our heads in shame) at the lengths they went to cover themselves, the ludicrous excuses, and random bouts of memory loss.
Tail! Spin! is a smart and funny show. It really is a great way to spend your night! We recommend that you do go and see it!
-Manjekar, Samantha, Jillian
