Girl You Know It’s True
By Bixby Elliot
Directed by David Perez
Produced by Pavement Group
At Chopin Theatre, Chicago
Satire of the phoniness of pop culture too vague for consumption
I must spend too much time going to theatre because I could not figure out who the folks were that Bixby Elliot’s play was spoofing. I have no idea who Millini Vanilli was so the pop references were mute to me. Add a super-fan, probably a friend of the production, laughing so loudly even at unfunny moments that I seemed out of place at Girl You Know It’s True.
The short scenes mixed with those inexplicable fraudulent pop celebrates left me confused. I was able to ‘get’ the gay couple that had one a playwright – Bixby (John Zinn) struggling to get produced. After many rejections, he decided to send in his plays not from himself but from a fictional African-American Lesbian woman (Sam Bailey) in a wheelchair. This fraudulent appeal to the quota-minded theatrical liberals got him produced. He hires an actress to play the playwright. She decides to keep the role alive once the play is successful. Somehow, she is never able to be exposed despite Bixby wanting to be credited with the work he actually wrote.
The scene changes and the interwoven stories did little but distract me from the main story which in the 100 minutes seemed to get lost in the Milli Vanilli story. I’d mention the memorable players but since the program had no photos of the actors, I couldn’t identify most of them from their character’s names. I’m unable to identify who played the two Milli Vanilli characters. When a show is so vague in referencing pop cultural folks, it can only appeal to those who know the references. I am not one of them, so maybe those who watch Entertainment Tonight will enjoy this show? The appeal seems to be for the 20-30somethings.
Somewhat Recommended
Tom Williams
Talk Theatre in Chicago podcast
Date Reviewed: April 16, 2012
For more info checkout the Girl You Know It’s True page at Theatreinchicago.com
At Chopin Theatre, 1543 W. Division, Chicago, IL
What kind of reviewer does absolutely no homework before sitting down (most likely with a comp ticket) and refusing to even find out the actors names?
The Chicago Critic, that’s who.
Mr.Williams, as a reviewer, it is your job to find out details about the production and speak to their merit. After a swift google search I was able to locate every actor in the production, complete with pictures.
And I’m not sure where you’ve been for the past 20 or so years, but Milli Vanilli is an internationally known group. Their fall was covered by every major paper (New York Times, Chicago Tribune) in the early days of the 1990’s; and, what’s worse: you also spelled their names incorrectly.
It’s one thing to not pay attention to pop culture. It’s another thing to refuse to do the least bit of fact checking.
I am a 50 something year old woman, and my Granddaughter (who is 7 years old) can correctly use the Google search engine. Are you familiar with the site? Here: http://www.google.com
It’s really great, Mr.Williams.
What is your problem with collecting information and fact-checking for your reviews?
With most programs and most press kits, the actor’s photo is included with their names and who they played. I did go to the Pavement Group’s website but I found nothing that would put a face on the characters. I’d love to know where you found such information.