"Pow! Bam! Zap!"
Confession: I have a middle-aged son who is such a comic
book and action figure dork that you can’t move in his house without fear of
knocking some musclebound superhero off his carefully positioned perch. So I
was well prepared to sympathize with and appreciate the Batman obsession of
Jason O’Connell revealed in his hilarious but also poignant one-man play, The Dork Knight.
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| Jason O'Connell. Photo: Ben Stothmann. |
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| Jason O'Connell. Photo: Ben Stothmann. |
Standing within a black-painted space, bare except for a
black arm chair and a small side table, he begins his tale with one of the deadliest spot-on impressions I’ve ever seen of Michael Keaton, star of the
first two movies in the franchise, directed by Tim Burton. Puckering his lips, squinting
his eyes, drying his lips with his tongue, speaking his words with dry, low-key
naturalness, hunching his shoulders a bit, he lets you not only hear but see
Keaton in the flesh.
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| Jason O'Connell. Photo: Ben Stothmann. |
O’Connell then moves on to reveal his reactions to each of
the subsequent films. This allows him to insert impressions not only of the
stars who played the caped crusader—from Keaton to Kilmer to Clooney to Bale to
Affleck—but also to capture the vocal and facial mannerisms of several of
Batman’s nemeses, like Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger’s Jokers, Danny DeVito’s
Penguin, Jim Carrey’s Riddler, Tom Hardy’s Bane, and Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Mr.
Freeze. Even Anne Hathaway’s Cat and Morgan Freeman’s Alfred pay a visit. Admittedly,
if you’re not a fanboy or fangirl, some of this may pass you by—especially one
scene where too many voices pile on in sequence—but what remains should still
hold you in its grip.
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| Jason O'Connell. Photo: Ben Stothmann. |
The premise, though, is not simply for O’Connell to comment
on these characters and their interpreters, or to describe with comic gusto what
an effort it was to capture the facial expressions of, let’s say, Jack Nicholson,
but to explain how these movies and their themes, especially as expressed
through Batman’s evolving ethos, influenced his own life as a struggling actor
and romantic partner. Interestingly, O’Connell sometimes turns to Shakespeare
(of which he’s done a substantial amount) to heighten his message.
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| Jason O'Connell. Photo: Ben Stothmann. |
His personal tale takes us to back to his childhood, growing
up in a family where his dad left early and he was raised by his mom, grandmother,
and, most lovingly, his grandfather; his father’s abortive attempt to reconnect
with his abandoned children; his excitement when Keaton and Nicholson, his two
favorite actors, were cast together in Tim Burton’s first Batman movie, which
happened soon after he’d written about such dream casting in his high school
newspaper; his growing fascination with the movies, each of which he’d see
multiple times; a job as a locker-room attendant at a boy’s dance
school; and how the wisdom he gleaned from Batman’s attitudes, especially as
embodied in Christian Bales’s growly incarnation, taught him invaluable life
lessons.
Smartly staged by Tony Speciale in the three-quarters round
in the tiny Dorothy Strelsin Theatre, exceptionally well lit by Zach Blane, and
supplemented by (uncredited) sound effects, The
Dork Knight is a perfect vehicle for the personable O’Connell to
demonstrate his considerable range as both a comic and serious actor.
I suspect my son, if he were to see this show, would agree that the impact of comic book heroes on his own life was probably just as deep.
I suspect my son, if he were to see this show, would agree that the impact of comic book heroes on his own life was probably just as deep.
OTHER VIEWPOINTS:
Abingdon Theatre/Dorothy Strelsin Theatre
312 W. 36th St., NYC
Through January 29