The intense character actor and comic John Leguizamo‘s made it clear he doesn’t want critics to review his latest solo show-in-progress, tentatively called John Leguizamo Live. It’s a special Just For Laughs Toronto presentation on at the Berkeley Street Theatre until Saturday (July 18).
I’ll honour that. I’m not rating it and I won’t be critical. After all, the groundbreaking Puerto Rican-American Bronx-born homie behind such influential and well-respected shows as Mambo Mouth, Spic-O-Rama and Freak is currently shaping the material on the road, seeing what works and what doesn’t.
But here’s the thing. Even in this early stage, the show rocks.
At two-and-a-half hours, there’s probably too much material, but no one at Wednesday night’s show was complaining. That standing-oh was genuine and heartfelt – as genuine and heartfelt as the performer himself.
This is basically a gritty memoir of the Jackson Heights kid who made it out of the hood but remains haunted by demons, both real and imagined. It takes all the gloss out of the Ugly Betty neighbourhood and shows what cajones, talent and balls-to-the-walls hard work can do for you, and the price all that exacts.
Using a series of slides (and a laser beam pointer) to illustrate his stories, Leguizamo whisks us through brief episodes from his troubled childhood, early exposure to theatre and comedy and then on to a series of thankless early film and TV gigs (including a tiny appearance in Madonna’s early Borderline video – he’s the dude in the red track suit and bandana in the opening seconds).
One of the show’s funniest moments comes when he’s demoted from Terrorist #1 to Terrorist #10 in Die Hard 2.
When the roles get slightly bigger, he butts heads and literally slams up against co-stars like Patrick Swayze (To Wong Foo) and Kurt Russell and Steven Seagal (Executive Decision), burning lots of bridges along the way with the simple refrain: “I’ll never work with you again… until the next time.”
And then there are his big vehicles, and he’s equally candid about the bombs (Super Mario Bros., The Pest) as he is the hits (Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge, The Fan).
Throughout, Leguizamo delivers great, economical impressions of everyone from Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro to Joe Papp and Tony Scott.
It’s not all laughs. He takes a clear-eyed, unsentimental look at the costs his career has taken on his friendships, his love life and his family. I defy you to remain dry-eyed at a scene about ¾ of the way through about an encounter with his estranged father in an alley behind a theatre. It’ll haunt you.
Don’t miss this show. [rssbreak]
