Show reviewed:  The Gypsy and the General
Date saw the show:  July 25, 2008
Place saw the show: Kansas City Fringe Festival,  Kansas City, Missouri
Company: 3 Sticks http://www.3sticks.org/play_G&G.html
Principal Leads: Katie Melby,  Jason Bohon, Andrew Lynch
Director: Katie Melby
Music by:  Andrew Lynch

Reviewed By:  Lory Lacy (Kansas City Correspondent - USA)

Despite the high-budget, slick-as-snot, Terminator-meets-Titanic entertainment sea in which we find ourselves submerged, I feel that I just bobbed to the surface and caught a little un-canned air. Hyphens aside, 3 Sticks' presentation of their original musical comedy, The Gypsy and the General, explodes with ingenuity, heart, and, apparently, the most important element of all: the absence of money. 

The sparse, mobile set, consisting of a white sheet, a white rope, a white barrel, some white PVC tubing and a larger white sheet, mercilessly pushes the collective talent to stand out like a rainbow moth on a hospital wall.

The basic premise is simple: "The General", played by Katie Melby in red boots, snake skin pants, a tank top, cropped army jacket and mirrored sunglasses, on a mission, crosses land, sea, and air, only to find out that she has to turn around and find her way back home alone, her underlings having been comically picked off by circumstance along the way. The self-deprecating breaks in character sustain that feeling of watching Carol Burnett and Harvey Korman crack up mid-scene, or Saturday Night Live at its most free and sublime. Jason Bohon, "The Doctor", scoops the audience into his hand and toys with it like a true puppet master. Until the characters themselves turn into puppets, mocking the small-scale, faux camera angle of four desperately-, hilariously-doomed adventurers climbing up the white sheet that just became a mountain range.

Oh, and the music...Andrew Lynch, "The Gypsy", single-handedly orchestrates the entire show
with two microphones, a guitar, a looping pedal, a mandolin, and some small percussion instruments. He sings like a bird, or Michael Bublé on his very best day, and plays all styles like he invented them. The opening and closing songs are comprised of chord progressions distilled from a history of vocal jazz standards.  Lynch also provides background music, employing percussive techniques on guitar mixed with percussion lines performed at the mic, and often looping his own live background vocals over the drum loop he has just created.  His pitch is impeccable, even while handling all the technical aspects of being a one-man pit orchestra.  If that all sounds like musician speak, which I can't help, then let me put it this way: the dude rocks and could easily be a show of his own.

Maybe I'm just new to this kind of theater, or maybe I'm sick to death of Hollywood, but damn it, I really enjoyed where this show took me.  It makes me wonder why people with so much singing, dancing, and acting talent are doing the van-tour thing for an audience of thirty.   But I know the answer to this; they have control of what they are doing, and they are doing what they do best.

The Gypsy and the General will next play at the Minnesota Fringe Festival August 2-9 and the Edmonton Fringe Festival August 18-24.