Edited by Kateri Butler
LA Weekly: Music
Thursday, Mar 6 2003
With more than a thousand different productions of THE LYSISTRATA PROJECT taking place worldwide and some two dozen or so in SoCal, it was hard to decide which one to attend. The Lysistrataat the LAFCO POWERHOUSE CULTURAL SPACE was definitely the city's big celeb event; people assured the harried clipboard boy they had tickets as TV reporters idled in front of their news vans. SHELLEY FABARES and peacenik hubby MIKE FARRELL stopped for the cameras before moving into the tight brick-walled space with MICHAEL O'KEEFE, BLAIR UNDERWOOD and JOHN HEARD, who had slapped a "Buck Fush!" sticker on the back of his pullover. First the RADICAL TEEN CHEERS whipped up the audience with chants taking on SUVs and child labor. TOM HAYDEN emceed the evening, noting: "If we're not making a difference, we are certainly making history." The overflow crowd outside screamed, "No sound!" as Hayden quoted Emma Lazarus, letting everyone know the mikes were on the fritz. "Should I fix it?" MARY McDONNELL asked the audience laughing inside. Luckily, when ALFRE WOODARD began reading, everybody settled down. "How big a thing is this?" JULIE CHRISTIE, playing Calonike, asked Woodard's Lysistrata. "It's big," Woodard said with a knowing eye to the crowd. ERIC STOLTZ made for the world's most charming Kinesias, ROSCOE LEE BROWNE lent the Commissioner for Public Safety his singular vocal gravitas, while CHRISTINE LAHTI and JOSÉ ZÚÑIGA had fun as the Spartans. Still, can a 2,400-year-old sex comedy chock-full of dick jokes bring about world peace? A question only a Bush can answer. —Christopher Lisotta
