Ernest Kearney

Henry Mayhew, in 1841, named his pioneering humor magazine after the gleeful little murdering bastard. Neil Gaiman turned to sought him out to use in one of his best graphic novels. Him and the Missus are clues in the 2014 thriller Gone Girl, and in the Marx Brothers’ 1931 Monkey Business Harpo joins them in a performance. There’s even an opera by Harrison Birtwistle. But I gotta say, for fun and merry murdering mayhem, none of them can hold a candle to Christopher Johnson’s live action adap... full review

Cyanne McClairian’s one woman show, I Died...I Came Back...Whatever will now enjoy the dubious distinction of serving me as an excellent example to call upon when an opinion I hold is in need of bolstering. (Would you believe that doesn’t happen often? Would you believe that if it was reported by Sean Hannity?) You see, during the just ended Hollywood Fringe, that month long celebration of the arts by the creative clans of Los Angeles, I found myself on more than one occasion dis... full review

KING DICK (Bronze Medal) I am someone who is consumed by the study of history, and feels that history is not something that should be played fast and loosed with. It is therefore understandable why I would have trouble with Christian Levatino’s “King Dick”. First the facts, Levatino uses as the basis of his play, one of the strangest meetings that ever took place in Washington D.C., when on December 21, 1970, Elvis Presley arrived at the White House to offer his service to President Rich... full review

U AND ME AND MY BEST FRIEND P (Gold Medal) Abby Schachner strikes one as this tornado of neuroses and talent, and her one woman show at the Elephant studio was Ground Zero for me on the night I sat in her audience. Free form to the gills, Abby bounces off the walls reciting her poems (one for every letter of the alphabet), and sharing her Fairy Tales that show the influence of the Brothers Grimm and Mickey Spillane. I would find it impossible to believe anyone left that audience without ... full review

ANOUILH’S ANTIGONE (Gold Medal) Brittany Kilcoyne McGregor, Miguel Perez, Tyler Peck, Katarina Rose Fabic, Michael Vega, Amy Huckabay, John Moeslein and Ross Thomas. Directed by Joseph Matarrese. It is annoying to me that this review comes at the end Fringe and will do no good as far as raising awareness of this show to the festival goers. But with three hundred plus productions that’s going to happen. So all this review can do now is list the talented cast and credit the skilled directo... full review

THE PLAYER KING (Platinum Medal) Darin Dahms has worked on his one man show based on life of Edwin Booth (1833-1893); considered the greatest American actor of the 19th century and the older brother of John Wilkes Booth, for a number of years. He will stage it every so often as he did for this year’s Fringe. When he decides to stage it again go and see it. If when that happens, you happen to be held prisoner chained by your leg in a basement somewhere, well then chew through your leg and ... full review

BLOOD, A VOODOO LOVE STORY (Platinum Medal) Michael Phillip Edwards has written and directed a dazzling, twisted, sensual, scary, strikingly clever, viciously funny, marginally pornographic and thoroughly original little morality tale about a man and a woman who meet at a sex retreat, fall in love, accidently enter into a manage a trois with an succubus from hell and are condemned to spend all eternity retelling their tale to audiences and having brain numbing magnificent sex. (Hey, it be... full review

PILLAR OF FIRE (Platinum Medal) Ray Bradbury’s Pillar of Fire was originally published in 1966, as part of “S is for Space” a collection of short Sci-Fi stories aimed at young adults, which was always one of the most page worn volumes in any junior High School library. In 1975, Bradbury, the constant creative tinkerer, adapted it for the stage. It is unlike anything else that Bradbury ever wrote, yet, paradoxically, it is a conflux of elements that would always be inherent to his style; the f... full review

HOUSE OF RABBITS CHARIVARI IN VOYEUR-VILLE (Platinum Medal) “House of Rabbits Charivari in Voyeur-ville” developed by Brandon Baruch and directed by Baruch and Kyle Johnston owes a great deal to The British Music Hall\rock band The Tiger Lillies and their musical reinterpretation of Heinrich Hoffmann’s 19th century children’s book “Der Struwwelpeter” or “Shockheaded Peter”. Hoffmann’s illustrated book of rhymes was intended to furnish German children with moral instructions, instructions which ... full review

“MARRY ME A LITTLE” (Gold Medal) Stephen Sondheim’s 1980 “Marry Me A Little” is akin to one those really excellent Japanese hors-d'oeuvre bars, where nothing is served but side dishes. The comparison is applicable because “Marry Me A Little” conceived by Craig Lucas and Norman René, is a review of songs culled from Sondheim’s major works – “A Little Night Music”, “Company”, and others, as well as a number of songs cut from Sondheim’s epic “Follies”. Songs that, like everything that... full review