From LAWeekly


NATALIE! reviewed by Neal Weaver
Written 11/20/03






This goofy romp concerns seven men and a girl who are all obsessed with a woman named Natalie. (Natalie is played, curiously enough, by an O-Cedar Mop.) The two writer-performers, Tommy Dewey and Greg Bratman, have cannily crafted a tour-de-force comedy that calls upon all their comic and histrionic skills: Between them, they play all eight characters. Dewey is the more protean of the two, providing crisp, concise sketches of a manic orphan with a pronounced British accent courtesy of PBS, a crusty sea captain, Natalie's violent-redneck former lover, and an addled dockworker. Bratman does multiple turns as a tough bounty hunter with a heart of mush, a poetry-writing stevedore, a murderous first mate, and the brash, slutty sister of the redneck. The plot doesn't entirely make sense (I'm still not sure why the first mate impaled his captain with a marlin hook), but that hardly matters since the tale is only a pretext for comic hijinks. The two actors change characters with lightning speed, clown exuberantly and occasionally break into song (music by David Turner). Director Merry Alderman keeps the chaos nicely controlled, and the set and props, by Sean Mewshaw and Sarah Krainin respectively, strike just the right note of stylish faux naivete. Flutie Entertainment, Covington Productions and DewMan Productions at the Tamarind Theater, 5919 Franklin Ave., Hlywd.; Thurs.-Sun., 8 p.m.; thru Nov. 23. (323) 465-7980.