What I liked
This show is so deeply character driven, and every actor hones in their talents and creates clear and concise characters, mostly with back story. We all know that theatre critics love a visible back story and Turbulence, bats the idea around pretty well. The cast comprised of some of LA’s most talented artist but I am gonna float on a few performances because of how they made me feel, and we all know people remember how you make them feel. Miles Crosman as Capt. Davin Galaxy, shines in his portrayal of a Capt. who wants to win for his planet, and keep his family together. He is strong, yet charming, witty, yet kind and yes it does seem like he is being “that other famous ship captain” but it works, and as head writer maybe it’s a bit unfair because he probably wasn’t as challenged to get the character because he probably wrote this character for himself, meaning he had a head start on knowing who this character is, and I guess that is ok. Chris Bramante as Mick Cribbins is a killer one line delivery artist, and steals the show with the shows most funniest moment. We don’t even care his backstory isn’t clear, it works. Kat Primeau lets us know that really good actors are really good actors no matter what they are acting in. When the show slows down and the cast performs an acapella balad, Kat just kills it as she sings for what might be her crews last moment on earth. It’s pretty tough to stay connected to a character in a comedy, even tougher to become real when you have to switch up from funny to a meaningful moment. Well maybe for most of us but not Kat. The rest of the cast is spectacular as well.
What I didn't like
If a rewrite is in the turbulent near future, keep the balad, build from there with the depth of characters.
My overall impression
I used to start all of my grad school essays with “I hate theatre,” proclaiming that there was a new form of theatre that I was looking for and the normal three walls realistic theatre was boring to me and made me despise going to the theatre. So I began devising ideas that led for an out of the box experience in my creative self. Once moving to LA and getting involved in the film business, I got away from the idea of developing these new forms of theatre and found the fringe festival where people were exploring with the very ideals that I was perpetuating for a few years prior. So, it’s not every day that a musical comedy, will border the line of being Never in a Box but that is what the team of talented musical theatre improvers have figured out to how to do with turbulence. Turbulence is a very smart, funny, character driven, touching, brilliant piece of work, which changes my idea that any genre can be an outside of the box, excuse me, a never in the box experience.
