Audiences in Heaven
Compared to last seasons Soul Samurai, production company Vampire Cowboys latest offering, Alice in Slasherland, comes up a wee bit short. Which is not to say that the blood-and-gore-and-laughs fest is a disappointment; the groups latest Tarantino-esque effort has all of the laugh-out-loud fisticuffs and self-referential dialogue that fans of the Downtown theater company could ask for. But where Soul Samurai was a tightly constructed play, Alices script feels more at ease in the throwaway bits, rather than in the plot (which involves a dead girl coming back to life on Halloween just in time to kick some demon ass with two high school students as the Apocalypse looms).
But who cares if the plot has as many holes as a macheted corpse? Frequent Vampire Cowboys actors Carlo Alban (as the geek who saves the world), Sheldon Best, Tom Myers, Andrea Marie Smith, Bonnie Sherman and Amy Kim Waschke, as the undead Alice, make sure that even if the audience isnt entirely clear on how a walking and talking teddy bear landed in with the high school crowd or why Alice may or may not be evil, were nonetheless entertained. Vampire Cowboys is one of the very few companies in New York City right now doing the kind of work that reminds you that theater can actually still be fun, and its latest is certainly no exception. There will always be a new production of The Glass Menagerie, but you may only get this one chance to see Alice in Slasherland. Dont waste it.
>Alice in Slasherland
Through April 10, Here! Arts Center, 145 6th Ave. (betw. Spring & Dominick Sts.), 212-352-3101; $18.