He's a little bit country, a little bit rock-n-roll . . . and all things in between. Part Dr. Faustus, part Li'l Abner, Sloppy Sean engages in yarn spinning, obscure trivia, political theory, and songs and stories in this production that some have called a cross between Pee Wee's Playhouse and The Porter Waggoner Show.
This FronteraFest 2002 BEST OF THE FEST winner features Hans Frank, Rebecca Robinson, and Yo Yo.
Performances are Fridays and Saturdays at 10:30 P.M. , following performances of Vigil . The show opens Saturday, September 7 and runs Fridays and Saturdays through Friday, September 27. Tickets are $10. For reservations, call 479-PLAY.
We can't tell you that Sloppy Sean can do no wrong. That wouldn't be fulfilling the requirements of criticism, would it? Because criticism is where you've gotta pick those technical nits and wax all scholarly about the implications of and the resonances with, right? Even if something is merely a "review" and not a "critique," one is still called upon to highlight the discrepancies of value and tone and what-have-you, in the interests of helping the artists reconstruct their vision to its ultimate betterment (and helping the audience to better appreciate the triumphs and failures inherent in the work seen or about-to-be-seen). Right? Yes? Are we on, as they say, the same page about this?
Fuck it.
The only kind of wrong Sloppy Sean can do is the kind of wrong Andy Kaufman did, because they were on the same frequency, Kenneth; although you might say it was actually Tony Clifton who was more on the same frequency as our troubled troubadour, because the Sloppy One is merely - ha! merely! - the creation of the enigmatic Hans Frank, who instills this geeky reprobate of a character with so much white trashoid, tire tool-weilding, heartbreak-howling, AM radio-listening verisimilitude that you're gonna bust a gut over his tales of desperation-fueled mayhem and love-inspired rockabilly tunes - when you're not boggling at the sheer professional talent of his back-up band.
Part Hazil Adkins, part Tom T. Hall by way of Robert Crumb, assisted by the ever-suffering Lady, accompanied by his one true love (the inflatable plastic doll, Yo-yo), this long drink of Jack Daniels backwash is the transverse colon in the body of original American music and talespinning. If you don't catch his final show this Friday night at Hyde Park Theatre, hell, you might as well just feed yourself to the flesh-eating zombies waiting around the next curve of the Lonely Highway.
As a child, Sloppy Sean spent most of his time in the woods, with many clowns; the clowns were his friends. When he got older, Mr. Sean had to leave the woods and the many clowns and what he found was a world not often friendly, not often kind, not often anything. We join Mr. Sean one lonely moonlit night, a slight chill in the air, as he journeys to New Lisbon, Ohio, to the grave of confederate sympathizer and leader of the Civil War era Copperheads, Clement L. Vallandigham; a man once considered extremely dangerous by Abraham Lincoln and who was later exiled to Canada. Mr. Sean looks for signs, omens, spirits whispering in the wind . . . anything. He performs various incantations and channels ghosts from the past, among them, Vallandigham and General John Morgan, who led Morgan's Raid through Southern Indiana and Ohio during the Civil War. At the end of the night, the morning sun just below the horizon, Mr. Sean finds himself once again alone to ponder the fate of man, and asks: "Is there anybody out there?" Only to be met with a deafening response.
Hyde Park Theater and GOATSONG PRODUCTIONS are proud to present the continuing saga of Sloppy Sean and an evening of transcendentalism, dance routines, and obscure trivia. Former FRONTERAFEST BEST OF FESTIVAL winner and recipient of a 2002 Austin Circle of Theaters' B Iden Payne award, Hans Frank brings us, transmitted from the Lonely Highway, SPY FROM MARS, with appearances by Ken Webster and others, and the strange, wild music of HOGWASH.
Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturday at 8pm, July 10-26. Tickets $15 Fridays and Saturdays; Thursdays is pay-what-you-can. Call 479-PLAY for reservations.
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