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A "Galaxy" not far away
"Galaxy Video" features fairly amusing snippets of life in a video store quite probably inspired by a store near you.
By JOSHUA TANZER
Offoffoff.com
Taking in the many scene snippets in "Galaxy Video" is like browsing the tapes in the comedy section in your local video emporium — a few are right on target, a few are dogs, and most are in the mildly amusing middle, like a Rick Moranis vehicle.
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| | | GALAXY VIDEO | Written and directed by: Marc Morales.
Cast: Donna Beeman, Carolina Bermudez, Philippe Cu Leong, Christopher Frankie DeGennaro, Jennifer Gawlik, Colleen Gilbert, Steven Holm, Aida Lembo, Jennifer Lieberman, Josh Mertz, Josh Mesnik, Marc Morales, Daisy Payero, Roxane Policare, Juliet Schaefer, Chris Thompson.
| | SCHEDULE | The Red Room
85 East 4th St. near 2nd Ave.
April 26 - May 19, 2002
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Seemingly inspired by a store right in the neighborhood, or perhaps in your neighborhood, the play zips from the narcoleptic assistant in aisle 31 to the supercool clerks at the front desk to the wacked Simon in aisle 20. It's almost closing time and everybody's losing their marbles if not losing consciousness altogether. Meanwhile, customers come in looking for "that movie with that guy that was in that movie with that girl" or, occasionally, for lost love.
Somewhat forced movie references ("She's like that wave at the end of 'Point Break'!") pile up alongside amiable character quirks like copies of "Not Another Teen Movie" on the Preston Sturges shelf. One likeable character just wants her job back, having worked one day and then vanished. "I turned myself inward and looked for an answer — I can do that, I take yoga — and the answer was 'Quit,' " she explains. Another wanders around the store inflicting her attitudinous cell-phone conversation on the whole store, and, to excellent comic effect, on us.
Many of the scenes are brief and not fully thought out or deeply mined for their comic potential. But the play is a pretty good effort by writer-director Marc Morales and by the entire cast, and not a bad way to fill the late-night weekend hours between the a movie and last call. But maybe the best parts are the scene changes, accomplished with stealth and intrigue by an inexplicable pair of lithe, black-clad, masked ninja stage hands. Well done.
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MAY 3, 2002
OFFOFFOFF.COM • THE GUIDE TO ALTERNATIVE NEW YORK
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