Fascinating Aida
British writers and performers are washing up on the shores of Manhattan over the next two months, and it has nothing to do with splashy Broadway imports that shamelessly show up the weaker American offerings. Instead of the Great White Way, they’ll be taking over the theater complex at 59E59 Theaters for the sixth annual Brits Off Broadway festival, the yearly reminder of just how shockingly talented British theater artists really are.
Beginning Nov. 3 with dark comedy Red Sea Fish, about a housebound father and the son who cares for him, the festival includes six more shows by its Jan. 3 end. The fest’s centerpiece is the U.S. premiere of Alan Ayckbourn’s My Wonderful Day, the playwright’s 73rd play. A prolific writer who makes Joyce Carol Oates seem lazy, Ayckbourn’s latest is about a child who fulfills her homework assignment of writing an essay called “My Wonderful Day” by observing the farcical comings and goings of the adults around her. Since it’s an Ayckbourn play, be prepared for plenty of door slamming amid those comings and goings.
Brits Off Broadway will also see an evening of short plays adapted from 10 Saki short stories under the umbrella title, Wolves at the Window. Saki, whose “The Open Window” is included in almost every high school English textbook in America, wrote elegantly disdainful and satirical stories about manipulative children and ironic betrayals, perfect qualities for an evening of one-acts. Later festival offerings include Merrick, the Elephant Man, a newly conceived version of the classic story of the Elephant Man, A British Subject, based on the real life death row sentence of an 18-year-old accused of killing a tax driver in Pakistan,and an evening of cabaret, Simon Green: Traveling Light.
But there’s also the eagerly anticipated return of British cabaret sensation Fascinating Aida at the year’s end. Long hailed as “Absolutely Fabulous meets Noel Coward,” Fascinating Aida has come out of retirement to celebrate its 25th anniversary with a lengthy tour of Fascinating Aida is Absolutely Miraculous, which includes a three-and-a-half week stop at 59E59 beginning Dec. 16.
A trio comprised of Dillie Deane, Liza Pulman and Adele Anderson, all of whom boast both vocal chops and exquisite comedic timing, Fascinating Aida has been keeping audiences in hysterics with satiric songs about modern life and the never-ending absurdities of public figures. After its rapturously received 2004 NYC show, Absolutely Fascinating, and with its songs covered by artists ranging from Patti LuPone to the Dresden Dolls’s Amanda Palmer, Fascinating Aida looks poised to conquer NYC audiences all over again.
“We love New York!” founding member and the group’s songwriter Dillie Keane said recently. “We’re very good tourists in one sense because we go to Times Square and buy tickets for any damn thing we can. We’ll spend all our spare moments at the theater. And I have friends in New York as well who can help me with my translations for an American audience. This show feels like it’s the most connected to the United Kingdom that we’ve done, so we’ve had to really rewrite and rethink.”
Finding herself growing increasingly political in her songwriting—a change she attributes to getting older and feeling as if she’s been there, done that—Keane is eagerly anticipating launching her new, American material on her audiences. “There’s quite a lot of political material,” she explained. “There’s a song about global warming, which is very funny until it’s not. And there’s a song about the after effects of radiation, which is a very odd song. The whole show is a mix of new material and old, for the long time fans.”
A question regarding the possible inclusion of a certain former Alaskan governor prompts a delighted chuckle. “There’s a little song happening,” Keane said. “I’m doing some more research on Sarah Palin. Though you don’t really need to! We do want to wait until the wire, so that it’s all really contemporary.”
Though the group retired in 2004, Deane and company couldn’t help fulfilling a former promise to reunite for the group’s silver jubilee. But after adding several new songs to a repertoire of fan favorites, the trio found themselves having too much fun to stop. And besides, Keane adds in mock weariness, “Well, you know what happened. Gordon Brown cut off our pensions, so what are you going to do?”
