Jack Benny (A Ménage En Train)

Inspired perplexity! Highly imaginative and committed -- with distinct characterizations, exquisite movement, potent text, and creative interplay of lights and sound! A train ride through the surreal and the noir! Get your ticket! Take the trip!... full review

The Jack Benny Show, a party in a perfect location, shattering conventions and embracing the minds ability to hallucinate. Trip back and prepare to lose control of normalcy, because now you've seen everything. The characters running around inside a vintage T.V. have been beemed back from another universe, riffing on primal vices. Juli Crockett's deep commitment to her character, Jack Benny, was riveting. If you're interested in getting your rocks off, tune in to The Jack Benny Show, or die trying.... full review

Holy shit. Talk about a ride. Brechtian. Epic. Surreal. Theatre. Let's get the first thing out of the way. Do I know what actually happened onstage? Like a plot... no, no, no. No plot that I could keep track of. Characters? Yeah. Sure. Kinda. There are people on stage. Dialogue? Not really. Well, yeah. But... okay, I give up. I can't really explain this show to you. What I can say is that I'm positive every single person will walk out of that theater with a completely different viewpoint, interest, love, hate, whatever, for this piece of art. I can only describe how I felt. This brought me to a point where I had no choice but to conclude that this is something that I may never fully grasp. I will never see the entire picture. A beh... full review

everything... full review

Wonderful fun, fast and furious. Deliciously entertaining. Spectacular performances. Innovative and exciting writing. Brilliantly directed.... full review

This is an enjoyable ride that will expand your ideas of what exactly constitutes a show -- and I mean that as a compliment. The work of talented, intelligent people, jazz musicians rather than pop.... full review

A very “Paduan” production, which is to say, uniquely engaging of the subconscious while incomprehensibly delighting the conscious senses. ... full review

There are very few pieces of art that are able to awaken you from the slumber of everyday existence, and for me the Jack Benny Show at the Three of Clubs did this for me. I was fortunate enough to catch the final show, and I am glad I did. The piece is incredibly well thought out, and the performances were spectacular. I left the show contemplating my own existence, and I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to see such master work both in the writing, acting, and staging. I am excited to see what else Padua Labs has brewing in the near future. ... full review

Good thing there’s low comedy and the vaudeville tradition standing on the shoulders of forerunners such as Jack Benny. “Jack Benny, the play” takes apart hierarchical power relations, and the text and actors are superb. The various versions of master/slave relations are subject to the democratizing or leveling force of laughter, but also the liberators such as Abraham Lincoln come in for another lowering of dignity. But what is this train from Chicago to Los Angeles, or maybe it’s a plane or dirigible? How might romantic mumbo jumbo and disfigurements get slathered onto power differentials and somehow predetermine our response? Is our plane, train, dirigible about to crash in this high-speed set of repetition anxieties that, here, are exper... full review