Last Night In Karaoke Town
Karaoke isn't Cool. Karaoke is in fact, the antithesis of "Cool" if we define "Cool" as that feline quality
of aloof detachment that makes you more attractive to people seeking your attentions precisely
because you won't give them. Karaoke, the practice of you, an amateur, singing your heart out in a dive
bar for the amusement of your fellow drunks, will never be that. It's also like my favorite thing.
Because as with storefront theatre, karaoke is the practice of wearing your emotions on your sleeve
and presenting your vulnerable, authentic self at your unselfconsciously cheesiest and not caring how
you look. That's why it will always be MY idea of Cool.
Mike Beyer and Kirk Pynchon's play Last Night In KaraokeTown, currently being performed at the
Factory Theater directed by Kim Boler recreates a karaoke dive bar experience with almost Uncanny
Valley level accuracy. Shannon (Ashley Yates) slings cheap, domestic beer behind the bar while Kenny
(Chase Wheaton-Werle) banters on the microphone between people singing the cheesiest rock
ballads imaginable from Earth Wind and Fire to Neil Diamond.
It's a perfect blue collar scene seemingly frozen in 1989, when the bar started. The story takes
place in Cleveland, a working class burg in the process of gentrification. The bar's longtime owner
Diana (Wendy Hayne) learns the building's been bought by Ethan (Tommy Bullington) a ruthless
yuppie with total disdain for the dive. He plans to shut the bar down and replace it with something
trendy. Ethan is Cool, and in this play, Coolness is akin to the Grim Reaper.
Charming subplots abound among the patrons, although plot isn't really the point in this brisk 90
minute show, the point is the environment it creates, and how charming you find it...well depends
on how much you love karaoke bars, for me, that is very, very charming.
The show is sweet, funny and winds up packing a surprisingly emotional punch, beyond cheesy charm, Last
Night In Karaoke Town is also an elegy to a passing age.
The Factory Theater, 1623 W. Howard St
February 14 - March 28, 2020
Mike Beyer and Kirk Pynchon's play Last Night In KaraokeTown, currently being performed at the
Factory Theater directed by Kim Boler recreates a karaoke dive bar experience with almost Uncanny
Valley level accuracy. Shannon (Ashley Yates) slings cheap, domestic beer behind the bar while Kenny
(Chase Wheaton-Werle) banters on the microphone between people singing the cheesiest rock
ballads imaginable from Earth Wind and Fire to Neil Diamond.
It's a perfect blue collar scene seemingly frozen in 1989, when the bar started. The story takes
place in Cleveland, a working class burg in the process of gentrification. The bar's longtime owner
Diana (Wendy Hayne) learns the building's been bought by Ethan (Tommy Bullington) a ruthless
yuppie with total disdain for the dive. He plans to shut the bar down and replace it with something
trendy. Ethan is Cool, and in this play, Coolness is akin to the Grim Reaper.
Charming subplots abound among the patrons, although plot isn't really the point in this brisk 90
minute show, the point is the environment it creates, and how charming you find it...well depends
on how much you love karaoke bars, for me, that is very, very charming.
The show is sweet, funny and winds up packing a surprisingly emotional punch, beyond cheesy charm, Last
Night In Karaoke Town is also an elegy to a passing age.
The Factory Theater, 1623 W. Howard St
February 14 - March 28, 2020
Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. Tickets for Last Night in Karaoke Town are $10 - $25 and may be purchased through the Box Office by calling 866-811-4111 or by visiting TheFactoryTheater.com
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