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Visit the Famous Door Theater official Early and Often webpage! |
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Before the play starts, Marty Collins, the democratic candidate for an Illinois house seat, is shaking everyone's hand as they enter the theater. This is the only time you actually hear him, because two minutes into the play he is found dead with razor wire around his neck. I must note how well Steve Rose, the actor who plays Marty, does a dead guy. The following scenes involve keeping the death quite until after the election, which ranks right up there with having the dead vote. The two rookie policemen that discover the body are told to keep it quite by a corrupt detective, and have to figure out how "straight" they are going to be. Art Ruck (Marc Grapey), a member of the Democratic party, is forced to work with the dim-witted Dennis (Dan Rivkin) by Flannery, (Will Casey) the head of the party. Art has to hide the body after numerous mistakes by Dennis, and also has to deal with a faltering relationship with his girlfriend, Connie. He puts up with all of it, being promised a huge opportunity if he does well, thinking that he would get Marty's position in the Senate. He comes to find out that Dennis is getting the position and his bonus is a piece of property he could make some money on by renting it out. Art, who is now furious with Flannery, leaves the Democratic Party and takes the body, and arranges a meeting with some newspapers to publicise the secret. However, Dennis finds the body and keeps the secret covered, while the hitman who originally killed Marty tries to find the body to appease his mob employer. All throughout this are a number of funny scenes with a priest and a confession booth. In the end, all the characters run into each other in a bar. The hitman shoots the body again, Flannery shoots Art, Dennis is arrested for sending ideas to the Russians, the police kill the hitman, and Art marries Connie. Early and Often was a wonderful political farce, and kept us and the audience laughing throughout. I felt Marc Grapey did a wonderful job with Art, and I loved the jokes with Father Anthony. This performance was a joy to watch, and is definitely one of the better plays I've seen.
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Early
and Often is being performed at the "Theater Building" by
"Famous Door Theater", who also does "Hellcab".
The theater here was a good bit larger than that of the Ivanhoe, and
instead of having one permanent setting, there were numerous
backdrops with movable props. The chairs were actual theater seats,
although a little bit worn, they were far more comfortable than those
at the Ivanhoe. Strangely, although looking identical, the seats had
various sizes.