Kill Me Deadly with Kirsten Vangsness
For Kirsten fans, here is a review from Backstage.com on her new production, “Kill Me Deadly” with the Theater of Note. Here is the review by Les Spindle:
Playwright Bill Robens, who previously focused his satiric lens on classic Charles Dickens (A Mulholland Christmas Carol) and Irwin Allen disaster flicks (The Poseidon Adventure: The Musical and The Towering Inferno: The Musical) now goes after film-noir private-eye melodramas, with rib-tickling results. Though the tomfoolery wears thin in the home stretch, this merry excursion in scenery-chewing fun benefits from Kiff Scholl’s zany directorial touches and a game cast milking the genre clichés for maximum hilarity.
The underbelly of 1948 Hollywood, as filtered through the pulpy sensibility of vintage B-movies, is cleverly conjured by Davis Campbell’s evocative set, Kimberly Freed’s deliciously gaudy costumes, Matt Richter’s shadowy lighting, and Darrett Sander’s hysterically cheesy black-and-white projections.
Merging seamlessly into this kicky milieu, stereotypical characters from formulaic whodunits quickly set the story in motion. At the center of the action, of course, is gumshoe Charlie Nickles (Dean Lemont), who projects an aura of detached confidence. Yet in analyzing clues, he always seems to be several steps behind his resourceful secretary, Ida (Lynn Odell), a CSI-caliber whiz decades ahead of her time. Haughty millionaire Lady Clairmont (beautifully overplayed by Kathleen Mary Carthy as a daffy cross between Bette Davis and Angela Lansbury) summons Charlie to her home, revealing that someone has threatened to kill her. After the murder inevitably takes place, the suspects include the dowager’s fired Guatemalan gardener (Phinneas Kiyomura), her uppity butler (Ezra Buzzington), her wacko son (Nicholas S. Williams), her spoiled daughter (Megan Bartle), and a histrionic femme fatale in a flaming-red gown (Kirsten Vangsness in the production’s funniest portrayal—a damsel-in-distress who’s as helpless as Attila the Hun).
The plot is negligible, and the killer’s identity is evident midway through. Robens would do audiences a favor by cutting at least a half-hour out of the piece. The laughs become scarcer as the story complications linger on and the shtick begins to feel repetitive. Nonetheless, this vehicle shows great promise, and you simply haven’t lived until you’ve heard Vangsness bulldoze her way through an ingeniously ludicrous “rainbow” song that’s equal parts Judy Garland in overdrive and Julie Andrews at her spoonful-of-saccharine sunniest. [Go Kirsten! Perfect!]
I forgot it was Wednesday! I didn’t even realize it was July today. I tell ya - summer runs together into one big, hot day for me sometimes. Luckily, I realized what day of the week it is so I could watch Criminal Minds. CBS is reairing “Cold Comfort,” which guest stars Cybil Shepherd as the mother none of us wants. In “Cold Comfort,” the team tracks a killer who embalms his victims so he can spend more time with them. I am looking forward to seeing this - despite the creepy killer embalming women, I feel like the creepiest part is the mother. She’s very cold and seemingly uncaring. It is an interesting dynamic there, especially because Mr. Gless has kept in contact with his son when his mother did not. 
(photo from Theater of Note) These people don’t stop working. Poor Matthew Gray Gubler is hobbling around on crutches, going to premiers. Kirsten Vangsness is taking a break from her Criminal Minds role and going to the theater. She always does things with the Theater of Note, and this summer it’s a production of Kill Me, Deadly. Variety had a review.
An arsonist is targeting public meeting places in this episode. After thirty-one people have been killed, the BAU is called in. Shows like this are terrifying to me - in the opening scene, people are in a movie theater, watching The Blob. Outside someone pours gasoline on the theater, and poof, everyone is running for their lives. It makes it seem like nothing is safe - you can be doing the most normal thing, with your family, and then one person makes a decision. That’s really part of what makes this show so good to me - so scary sometimes too.
ABC Studios has submitted “Mayhem” and “Shades of Grey” for Emmy consideration. Both good episodes - I really liked “Shades of Grey,” which was the one in which the team is investigating a series of child murders. They apprehend someone, but one of the murders was committed by someone else. The bad seed episode - very creepy. “Mayhem” was the season premier, and I have fond memories of it because I was in the hospital about to have my son when I watched it. So both good choices. Do you think CM will win?
