What I liked
Show #2 (530PM) had one sensational performance, by Brooke Moltrum, in the thinnest story, about a gung-ho girl jumping into parachuting. This performer is 100% Ready for Prime-Time; I hope she gets the vehicle she deserves to showcase herself as the pro she already is! Troy Armand Barbosa ably did a lengthy piece contrasting a home raid in Iraq with his own dysfunctional family in Louisiana, and Jabari finished with an interesting mood piece set in Afghanistan, but both were somewhat overmatched by the opener.
What I didn't like
BOTH shows need (1) SEPARATE titles to maintain a SEPARATE identity and (2) a chance for all THREE performers to take a common curtain call!
Show #1 (400PM) started by stranding a talented singer named Taji Coleman in an uningratiating and ill-conceived whine about an unhappy tour-of-duty and finished with a father-son yarn uniting the Air Force and “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”! But in between, John David Wallis galvanized the audience with a well-conceived piece about Afghanistan and the fate of the brother of a dead terrorist—-easily the high point of a mercifully short triple-feature.
My overall impression
Although it’s a moot point, since the shows I saw yesterday (SAT the 17th) were the last, there are TWO separate shows with the SAME title and no way to tell the difference, though one is Significantly better than the other. EACH has three quarter-hour solo performances, sometimes strangely (and unnecessarily) sung, but only because the sponsor is New Musicals Inc.! The 2nd (530PM) was splendid, with strong material, strongly performed by top-notch cast members; the 1st ( 400PM) had some good performers stranded by less-interesting stories.
