Clown Bar 2
Written by Adam Szymkowicz and Directed by Andrew Block
Parkside Lounge at 317 E Houston St, New York, NY 10002
Sun 4/14 at 2pm, Mon 4/15 at 7:30pm, Tue 4/16 at 7:30pm
Sat 4/20 at 3pm & 7:30pm & Sun 4/21 at 3pm
Chris Cornwell as MUSTY, Kimberly Bollard as POPO, Cami Alys Yankwitt as PETUNIA, Catie Marron as VIRGINIA
In the past few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to see Tony Award winner, Rachel Chavkin’s Lampicka, the star-studded Uncle Vanya at Lincoln Center with Steve Carell, Patriots with Olivier Award winner Will Keen, and Clown Bar 2. And what you all need to do, is drop everything and see Clown Bar 2 at the Parkside Lounge before it closes on Sunday.
Missed Clown Bar (1)? Don’t worry – they’ll catch you up quick enough.
Don’t know anything about the Clown Crime Syndicate? Don’t worry about that either.
Are you afraid of clowns? You should be.
Apparently, it’s been 10 years since the original Clown Bar graced the stage – something that makes me profoundly sad – as I missed something great. For those of you as new to this as I am, Clown Bar is a bar for Clowns – and clowns only. So, when two gumshoes come looking for Happy, the owner of Clown Bar, they stick out like sore thumbs. They live the “beige life” and it shows. But this mystery requires one of them to go undercover to suss out what has happened to the Happy the Clown.
From there we are introduced to a cast of real characters: Petunia, who resembles Bette Davis as Baby Jane, is sweet and saucy. Musty, the twin brother of Dusty from the original Clown Bar, is our musical host, and when he sets up a joke, he expects a response! PoPo must be a cousin of Pennywise. You’d be safer with Pennywise. Cliteau is a chatty mime, but surprisingly, that isn’t what gets him into trouble. And then there is Brigham Bill and his gang – the roughest, toughest, gun-toting cowboy clowns this side of the Mississippi. Anyone of them could be the killer!
This show is the funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time. (And, I thought that before my “Salty Trombone” arrived from the bar.) The jokes are as pun-laden as one would expect from this bunch of clowns. This show is so low-brow it’s high-brow. There’s song. There’s dance. There’s Super-Soakers and Bubbles. They make the most of every cream-pie in their arsenal. It’s wild and raucous, and you will quickly forget the outside world on this 80-minute rollercoaster ride. I honestly did not want it to end.
Order yourself a Salty Trombone, and make it funny! But maybe, just maybe, don’t sit at the bar. You have been warned.
Now . . . Send in the Clowns.
Presented by SparkPlug Productions.
Click HERE for tickets.
Reviewed by Nicole Jesson.
Published by Theatre Beyond Broadway on April 17th, 2024. All rights reserved.