Tor Brown, Max Marsh, Ashley Snyder and Jared Wilson as The Charmings
The Loft Ensemble is currently presenting what they bill as “an unapologetic farce, a play that satirizes the modern fractured fairy tale genre.” Jay Ward should sue. It comes across as a really bad Saturday Night Live sketch that just can’t seem to end. It’s a five-minute improv routine stretched into 90-minutes of agonizing torture. I must admit some of the audience was laughing and I sniffed the air for laughing gas and found none and also found no free bar dispensing intoxicating drinks to them. It’s Fringe! Mitch Rosander wrote and directed The Princes’ Charming and that was probably the first mistake. The script definitely needed someone else’s vision to shape and heavily edit it. King Frederick (Max Marsh) and Queen Isabel (Ashley Snyder) are attempting to marry off their twin sons—the three-minute older Prince Arthur (Jared Wilson) and the younger Prince William (Tor Brown). The very annoying and unfunny Minnie (Bree Payvey), short for Minstrel, narrates the tale. Arthur goes on dates with Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and Xena, Warrior Princess while William falls in true love with peasant Roselyn (Jordan Wynter). There is a lot of gay innuendo bantered about—Frederick is constantly feeling up his speedo clad serving man Reggie (Daniel Joo) but has sex with Isabel about every five minutes. Neighboring King Roland (Jon Tosettie) is groping all the men but again, no payoff. When stagehand Bob (Cameron Britton) repeatedly struck his head with a hammer, I could really empathize. I wanted a hammer of my own. The only real talent witnessed was displayed by Lauren Sperling as the narcoleptic Aurora face planting into her dinner plates and as Snow White, having manic conversations with birds.
Lauren Sperling as Snow White
Sacred Fools Theatre, 8320 Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood. June 10, 15, 17, 20, 22. http://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/3229