Theater: Claire Tow Theater / 150 West 65th Street, New York, NY, 10023
Synopsis:
Part Pygmalion, part Busby Berkeley, part self-help lexicon, Stop Hitting Yourself borrows from the plots of 1930's musicals to dig deep into the contemporary conservative dilemma: how to honor steely individualism without disavowing the virtue of charity -- all the while tap-dancing around a queso fountain. Commissioned by LCT3, Stop Hitting Yourself will be a world premiere.
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January 27, 2014: A little bit of Las Vegas has splashed down on the campus of Lincoln Center, of all unlikely places. To enter the Claire Tow Theater, where Stop Hitting Yourself, the frisky new show from the adventurous theater collective Rude Mechs is being presented, feels like stepping into one of the gaudier suites at Caesar’s Palace.
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January 27, 2014: One look at the decadent ’30s mansion where Stop Hitting Yourself is set, and it’s hard not to gasp. A giant dollar sign flashes in the background, melted cheese is pouring from a fountain and everything, including the piano, is gilded within an inch of its life.
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January 28, 2014: Isn’t it just a bit ironic that Stop Hitting Yourself, the Rude Mechs’ pointed (if only fitfully funny) satire of American materialism, should be playing in the grand surroundings of Lincoln Center? To be sure, this transgressive show is tucked away out of sight at the Claire Trow Theater, the LCT3 venue for experimental new work from Young Turks — and where all tix are humanely fixed at a democratic $20. But standing on the terrace, it’s still within spitting distance of the stylish crowds headed for the opera and the concert halls.
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January 27, 2014: Luxury is the main target of Stop Hitting Yourself, the new production of the Rude Mechs ensemble running through Feb. 23 at Lincoln Center Theater's black-box Claire Tow Theater, but it's not just the high living who are in the crosshairs. The seven-person cast repeatedly breaks the fourth wall to remind you that even the average audience member should feel guilty about leaving Trader Joe's and not stopping to give pocket change to the homeless. Guilt is the M.O. here, and we're reminded of it over and over again in this clever but belabored 90-minute meditation on decadence.
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January 27, 2014: Lincoln Center’s Stop Hitting Yourself is designed to gleam. Everything onstage — the furniture, the grand piano, the David-like statue, the gigantic dollar sign studded with lights, and even the tiered fountain flowing with, so we’re told, liquid cheese — is golden. If only the show was half as dazzling.
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