Thursday, August 20, 2020

294. KUMQUATS. From my (unpublished) ENCYCLOPEDIA OF THE NEW YORK STAGE, 1970-1975

Gregory Smith, Wayland Flowers.

KUMQUATS [Musical Revue/Puppets/Sex] B/LY: Cosmo Richard Falcon; M: Gustavo Motta; D: Nicholas Coppola; DS: Wayland Flowers; L: Ken Moses; P: Cosmo R. Falcon and Wayland Flowers i/a/w Art and Bert D’Lugoff; T: Village Gate Theatre (OB); 11/15/71-1/2/72 (53)

A short, amusing, adult puppet and live action musical revue that satirized American preoccupations with sex. It was billed as “The World’s First Erotic Puppet Show,” which seems unlikely. Many puppets of different sizes were employed in this cabaret-style show, whose conception was the brainchild of puppeteer Wayland Flowers. Among the bits in the two-act show were those titled “The Evil Fairy and the Hippie,” “The Wee Scotsman,” “Adam and Eve,” “The Fairy and the Hard Hat,” “Madam Meets a Midget,” “Mao Tse Tongue, and ” “The Story of Ooooh!” the contents of which you are free to imagine on your own.

Howard Thompson enjoyed it considerably, but Michael Feingold could only recommend it “mildly.” “Nothing great,” he offered, “but a few clever moments, [and] a mildly cheery spirit,” with the puppets “all very ingeniously handled.”