By Ernest Kearney — A super hero on a Freudian’s couch is an interesting enough way to begin a play.
The Human Fly (Brendan Brandt) is agonizing over his existential quandary of whether, on a moral level, he has any justification in calling himself a “hero.”
Later back at the Super Lair he meets up with the rest of the crime fighting crew of Sate City.
There’s the sinewy Leopard Woman (Chelsea Brandt), Rhino Man (David Schwartzbaum) with a large silver horn protruding from his forehead, phallic-like, and the anal-retentive Silver Streak (Jeff Kongs).
With crime at an all-time low, there’s really not much for our crime fighters to do but sit around and bicker. That is until Simpson (jaimyon Parker) arrives from the city to do an audit on the Super Lair — budget cuts are on the way.
Now we find out our heroes aren’t really trained to do anything else but protect the citizens of Sate City from super villains, which there’s been a dearth of since The Human Fly accidently fell off a building and landed on the last one. Rhino Man even confesses he only took the job because it was easy.
From here there follows much name calling and the such.
Meanwhile Back at the Super Lair… by Greg Kalleres can’t seem to decide whether it’s a Mad Magazine parody or a film by Robert Downy Sr., and Director Jack Stehlin hasn’t addressed that issue either.
There are some good performances, especially from Parker (who captures the tone of a Downy film) and Kongs (who commits to the parody), but otherwise the piece seems unfocused (the Playwright’s fault) and unsure of its footing (the
Director’s).
The show is either low silver or a high Bronze, and because it’s the first show I’ve seen, and it was pre-preview for the production, I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt and call it 
Silver.
A low silver.
♦ ♦ ♦
NOTE: Above in Featured Image — (l-r) Ronald Auguste, Jade Sealey, Christopher Frontiero, Robert Cicchini and Jeff Kongs in Meanwhile, Back at the Super Lair … (Photo by Jeannine Wisnosky Stehlin, Courtesy of New American Theatre)
Meanwhile Back at the Super Lair… by Greg Kalleres
Director Jack Stehlin
Playing thru June 23 during the Hollywood Fringe 2018
Venue: New American Theatre Company , 1312 N.Wilton Place
Complete show information: www.newamericantheatre.com/
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