STUCK! performed by Natasha Boomer and guests (Take Your Mark Productions/Next Stage). At the Factory Antechamber. Jan 7 and 8:40 pm, Jan 8 at 6:40 pm, Jan 9 at 7:40 pm, Jan 10 at 3:40 pm, Jan 11 at 5:55 pm, Jan 12 at 8:25 pm, Jan 13 at 7:55 pm, Jan 14 at 9:25 pm, Jan 15 at 6:40 pm, Jan 16 at 7:55 pm, Jan 17 at 5:55 pm. See listing. Rating: NNNN
Being stuck in a small space with someone for 30 minutes doesn’t sound like much fun, but if that person is Natasha Boomer you can expect to be entertained.
Throughout Next Stage, the infectiously funny comic actor and a different daily guest play characters trapped in a venue that the audience suggests. Together they improvise a show, presumably with no flashbacks and no stepping out of the tiny square of playing space in the intimate Factory Antechamber.
At last night’s opening, her guest was Second City alum Rob Baker, and they played a married couple stuck in a wardrobe. The two had a nice rapport, quickly establishing the husband’s penchant for breaking down doors and the wife’s obsessive compulsive list-making, not to mention her unusual parenting skills.
Baker cleverly used the venue’s excessive heat to his advantage, appearing like he was going to explode at any moment. He also came up with a couple of ideas to escape, one involving phoning his son.
Boomer proved a clever foil, teasing out stories about their collective pasts. I especially enjoyed their bizarre stories about alternate uses for bathroom faucets.
It’s a shame the performers don’t get a two or three minute warning before the end so they can search for a fitting conclusion. Last night’s show ended anticlimactically.
And musical director Scott White’s keyboard contributions didn’t add anything. For some reason he used the piano motif from the horror film Halloween several times without any indication that the pair in the wardrobe were being terrorized.
