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| Frank Girardeau, Kristen Marie. (Photo: William E. Miller,) |
Charles Manson, leader
of the cult called The Family, which carried out a horrible
multiple murder whose victims included screen actress Sharon Tate (an event recently dramatized in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood), had spent
22 years of his wretched life behind bars, thus providing the title for this
spurious attempt to blame society and drugs for Manson’s misdeeds. The large-cast
play, which included two songs by Manson himself, was termed a “rockumentary,”
and had been developed in group workshops using improvisational techniques.
Although
insufficiently demonstrated, 22 Years sought
to depict Manson as a nonviolent mystic imbued with “charitable” impulses. “[R]arely
dull,” the play, wrote Arthur Sainer, was “an adult piece of drama, filled with
theatrical intelligence and, for all its fuzziness, . . . distinctive.” Mel
Gussow disagreed, feeling that the argument that “violence, . . . massacre and mutilation
are as American as apple pie” was invalid and “unconvincingly dramatized.”
The only name in the
cast of 26 that stands out today is that of Chaz Palminteri.
Readers of this blog who may be
interested in my Theatre's Leiter Side review collections (one with a memoir),
covering almost every show of 2012-2014, will find them at Amazon.com
by clicking here.
Next up: Twigs.
