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Pitching Penguins
By Michael Rosenbaum and David Brimm
Produced by Flaxen Theater
Victory Gardens Greenhouse
2257 N. Lincoln Ave
Chicago, IL
Tickets: 773-871-3000 or victorygardens.org, $38-$43
Thu.-Fri. at 8:00 p.m., Sat. at 5:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., Sun. at 3:00 p.m.
Running time is 2 hours 5 minutes with one intermission
Through March 16th
Pitching Penguins is Strictly for Laughs
Chicago PR execs Michael Rosenbaum and David Brimm have teamed up to turn their long years of frustration working in public relations into a hilarious new comedy that is now in its world premiere at Victory Gardens Greenhouse. The result of their efforts is Pitching Penguins, a zany office send-up set in a mid-sized Chicago public relations firm. The staff at the firm are overblown caricatures of the real life workplace, but there is just enough truth in the stereotypes to tickle the funny bone of anyone who has ever worked in advertising or in any other office for that matter. There’s Bud Brooks (Larry Carpenter), the overly zealous boss and his idiot heir-apparent son Billy (Scott Cupper). There’s the talented, hard working female exec Sue (Julie Cowden) whose never-onstage boss Jerry takes credit for all her work. There’s the talented wiz Bob Morrison (Thom Goodwin) who should be next in line to run the place but isn’t and the overly caffeinated young exec Stephanie Ellis (Jules Lambert) who is determined to climb the ladder no matter what sorry product she is given to work with.
There are a number of sorry products in the show, too – several of them from the playwrights’ collective real-life experience. The worst of the collection is the working for the Penguin Council to convince the public that penguin is the new white meat…and black meat. Hence the title Pitching Penguins. As the pressure to regain their status as the town’s number one agency mounts, the loser products just keep coming out of the woodwork. Billy’s dad assigns him the most important presentation, regaining the combination cellphone/microwave account whose departure a year earlier has thrust the agency into the number two slot. Billy’s mock French elegant presentation, presented in pantomime, is the side-splitting high point of the evening.
Director Karin Shook keeps the pace rapid and the performers clearly enjoy the exaggerated nature of the characters they play. The structure of Pitching Penguins is a series of ridiculous products and disastrous public relations stunts. That’s the whole bit – a collection of gags and nothing more – but the material is funny and entertaining in spite of its simplistic and overblown nature. Pitching Penguins won’t win any awards, but it will make you laugh and that’s its raison d’ętre.
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Randy Hardwick
randyontheglobe@yahoo.com for comments
Date Reviewed: February 9, 2008
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