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REVIEW: TWO GIRLS FROM VERMONT
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Bard brains
"Two Girls from Vermont" is a hilariously campy musical that reimagines Shakespeare's two gentlemen as high school girls in the Britney Spears era.
By KRISTINA FELICIANO
Offoffoff.com
"Two Girls From Vermont: A Dirty Pop Extravaganza" is the funniest, most entertaining and eccentrically imaginative musical in New York.
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This Fringe Festival standout is an adorably campy adaptation of Shakespeare's "Two Gentleman of Verona" that will remind you of "Moulin Rouge," "The Donkey Show" and MTV's "TRL" — with a good measure of the sketch-comedy delicious goodness of "Saturday Night Live."
The story centers on two lovestruck high-school girls, the boys who love them and the "SNL"-like cheerleader who plots to ruin their romances.
The setting is Canada — jokingly portrayed as an exotic land — where the girls spend their summer working for the Duchess of Quebec (a hilarious Nathan Halvorson in drag — he's equal parts Auntie Mame and Doris Day).
And the sets and costumes are of the candy-colored variety you'd expect in any self-respecting soon-to-be camp classic.
The musical numbers are the best part of the show, though. Like "Moulin Rouge" and "The Donkey Show," another Shakespeare adaptation, "Two Girls" takes its tunes from pop music — teen pop in particular, including two Britney Spears hits, "Lucky" and "Oops, I Did It Again."
And the cast — a uniformly talented group — perform the songs as enthusiastically as if they were playing to a crowd of screaming teens. You don't need to be a Bard brain to enjoy this show.
Despite yourself, you'll be singing the theme song — Olivia Newton John's "Xanadu" with Canada substituting for the land of Kublai Khan — long after you leave the theater.
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AUGUST 24, 2001
OFFOFFOFF.COM • THE GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE NEW YORK
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