Cute as the Dickens

                                                                           photo via C Stanley Photography

Now playing at Washington Stage Guild, thru April 24-- The Gospel According to Thomas Jefferson, Charles Dickens, and Count Leo Tolstoy: Discord. 

"Directed here by Washington Stage Guild artistic director Bill Largess, and featuring a trio of able comic performances, the production will particularly entertain recovering English and comparative literature majors, lovers of Founding Fathers minutiae, and people who have brooded over what makes a fulfilling and ethical life." - Washington Post

"The interaction of the three men is lively, entertaining, and occasionally funny as they spar over everything from the meaning of life to who was more famous." - DC Metro Theatre Arts

"Peter Boyer’s Dickens was an energetic force, full of both opinions and of himself. As Dickens the entertainer, his version of the gospel mined the grandeur of the story, the majesty of the occasion" .... "The production, directed by director Bill Largess is nimble and at times crackles." - MD Theatre Guide

"Washington Stage Guild gives it a solid production, thanks mostly to the actors who (we imagine) nail their historical figures." - Broadway World

Bread and Butter

When I was in college, we talked about Shakespeare and Bertoldt Brecht and Stanislavski and Uta Hagen and Tennessee Williams and Ionesco and ... and we didn't talk about the really bread-and-butter type things, the commercials and industrials, that we do to pay the bills in between stage gigs. These things are a fairly regular part of my work-life these days.  I recently did some video work for the US Postal Service and for the American College of Cardiology.

Here's a couple of bread-and-butters that I shot a little over a year ago.

Vin Vasive #4

Here's another Vin Vasive video for the USDA.

This was one of the toughest to shoot because of technical issues having to do with the 'helmet' and the pneumatic tubes running into it from the back.  Before I put the helmet on, the director walked me through everything he wanted.  And then I went to the designer, who put me into the helmet, and then carefully walked me (now blind) over to my spot, helped me kneel down, and literally moved my hands to where they needed to be for the shot.  When we filmed it, I had to turn towards where I thought the camera was and hope I was right.

The costume designer said he was very happy I wasn't claustrophobic.  So was I.

Ocean City Tourism, "Vacation Day"

This one has been playing for a couple of months now.  It was directed by Matt Pittroff, whose work I really admire.  I've done a couple of shoots with him before -- his work is always high quality, smart, with a great dry humor to it.

 I'm with Julie Garner in the shot.  She is one of the funniest people I know, and I'd work with her again in a heartbeat.

Vin Vasive #3

Here's another video from the Vin Vasive series I did for the USDA.  My outfit consisted of shoes, pants, shirt, jacket, a neck cover with (plastic) bugs on it, gloves with bugs on them, a balaclava with a bug mouth that I could move, and a sort of helmet that covered my head above the mouth.  With the helmet on, I couldn't see and sound was muffled, though I could hear okay as long as I focused.

The helmet also had tubes running in from the back so that the designer could make the 'eyebrows,' feelers, and 'nose' move using pumped air.  But whenever he would make them move, all I could hear was pssshhhh pshhh pssshhhhh.

There were a couple of times when the director would give me instructions while the designer was testing the moving parts.  So I couldn't hear a word the director was saying or see what he was indicating, but I could tell he was telling me something important.  I would have to wait for the psshhhing sounds to stop, so that I could say to the director, "Sorry, could you repeat that for me?"

Fantastick!

 

I played Mortimer in The Fantasticks at Rep Stage, which ran from April 30th thru May 18th. Reviews treated me very favorably, and as you'll see in the quotes I'm well paired with Nigel Reed. He and I have worked together a couple of times before.

"The show’s real delight is whenever Nigel Reed appears as the incorrigible ham actor Henry and Peter Boyer accompanies him as his dimwitted assistant Mortimer, who can’t act much but sure knows how to die. There is no over-the-top for these roles, but the two veteran actors squeeze every drop of foolishness conceivable from these characters, and achieve the ultimate in comic acting: the audience begins to laugh as soon as they appear on stage." - DC Theatre Scene

"Nigel Reed as Henry and Peter Boyer as Mortimer are perfectly cast."- MD Theatre Guide

"The show is all but stolen by the two kings of comedy, as Henry (Nigel Reed) and Mortimer (Peter Boyer) take to the stage. Climbing out of the prop box as if they were little more than decorative additions to the show, Reed and Boyer share a chemistry, playing exceptionally well off one another. From the moment Reed takes the stage by struggling to climb out of the box, the laughs are rolling. His Shakespearean recitations are a scream and are topped only by the hysterically exaggerated death scenes performed by Boyer .... Rep Stage’s production is indeed ‘fantastic’!" - DC Metro Theatre Art

"This musical's two plum assignments -- droll characters who pop out to help with El Gallo's schemes -- have been particularly well-filled. Peter Boyer has the right deadpan for The Man Who Dies. And Nigel Reed walks off with the show every time he clambers into view, and every time he makes one of his finely flourished exits. A masterful job." - Baltimore Sun

The entire cast was quite good, and a pleasure to work with.  Here's a 'fantastick' promotional video Rep Stage put together:

Vin Vasive #2

Another video from the Vin Vasive series for the USDA.

When I was in the outfit, I couldn't see anything at all except a little bit of light coming through the 'eyes.'  One time the director said to me, "You're not looking at the camera, I need you to look at the camera!"  I replied, "Sure.  Where is it?"  The costume designer, who understood how completely blind I was, shouted out, "Two o'clock!"  I turned a little bit to my right, and we were good to go.

Vin Vasive #1

Here's a video from a series I shot a few months ago for the US Dept. of Agriculture.  The character is called Vin Vasive.  Not my voice, but I am the man behind the mask.  It was one of the most unusual shoots I've ever been involved on.

Chili ... in da face ...

Here's a little web commercial I did.  It's fun.  And funny.  You can throw food at me.  And at a few other good folks.  My wife threw food at me repeatedly.

http://www.geappliances.com/social-food-fight/

Images from Groucho

Groucho: A Live in Revue closed on Saturday, March 23. It was a pleasure to be there.

photos via John Westervelt

Groucho

photo via John Westervelt

It's been a wild ride over the last month-and-a-half. In the last two weeks of Beyond Therapy at Bay Theatre in Annapolis, MD, I also rehearsed Groucho at Wayside Theatre in Middletown, VA, over a hundred miles away. Beyond Therapy closed on March 20th, and Groucho opened on the 27th, only a week later.

Groucho really got positive reviews in the Northern Virginia Daily, and particularly in the Winchester Star:
     "Peter Boyer is the perfect Groucho Marx." -- FC Lowe

And then another from the Warren County Report (p. 8):
     "Peter Boyer . . . IS Groucho." -- Malcolm Barr

And then there was an interview on "Talk of the Town with Barry Lee" on Winchester's ABC station. A very fun interview, with host Barry Lee, director Warner Crocker, and me in character as Groucho. The interview is the first 7 minutes of the program, and I hope you'll give it a look, HERE.

And I've received so many compliments from folks involved with the show and folks who've seen the show that I'm quite simply stunned by it all. And I have the great fortune to be working with a bunch of generous and talented folks.

We close on Saturday, April 23rd, and if I hope you'll see it if you have the chance. For more info and tix, go to Wayside Theatre's website. And if you'd like to see some of John Westervelt's excellent pictures from the show, go HERE.

photo via John Westervelt

Work, Work, Work

I'm preparing to start rehearsals for GROUCHO at Wayside Theatre. This preparation is difficult, painful, stressful, tedious, involving such things as placing Marx Bros. DVD's into the DVD player and . . . watching them. Shortly after this post, I shall grit my teeth and watch The Cocoanuts. Wish me luck.

I also have to learn a few songs, like "Titwillow" and "Lydia the Tattooed Lady." Fortunately, in my youth I saw these two songs performed by the Muppets (I assure you I watched The Muppet Show merely to prepare myself for days like this).

Attack of the Killer Leaping Groucho Bartlett

About the Killer Whale . . .
Last night I dreamed that a killer whale escaped an aquarium. A dramatic leap (over my head), a slide down a grassy slope and into the sea. A visually spectacular dream, sorry you missed it.

About Groucho . . .
I'll be playing Groucho in Groucho @ Wayside Theatre from March 26 - April 23. Rehearsals overlap the current show I'm performing in (Beyond Therapy @ Bay Theatre) by two weeks, and the theatres are over 100 miles apart, so I'll be in for a few interesting commutes.

About That Guy On The Right . . .
Way in the future, I'll be playing Josiah Bartlett in the musical 1776 @ Ford's Theatre. That'll run March 14 - May 19 -- in 2012.

Another Review

Another review has come out for Beyond Therapy at Bay Theatre. The writing is interesting . . . . reviewer Gerald Fischman of The Capital looks not only at how the play comes across today but also how it'll come across (or not) in a generation or two:

"It's Durang's bounciest and most accessible play, but it has also started to date . . . . Today's theater audience - mostly an older crowd - can cope with this. But in a few more decades, the play will not just be unperformable but will have to be footnoted as heavily as one of Shakespeare's comic scenes."

But he's generally favorable, saying some rather nice things about the cast. Here's my bit:

"Boyer injects enough intelligence and poise into Bob to compensate for the fact that the man usually acts like a baby."

Chewing the Scenery Again

I'm currently performing in Beyond Therapy at Bay Theatre. I play Bob, Bruce's gay lover. Some reviews just came out for the show, and here's a few tasty bits --

"Adding to the hilarity [is] Bruce’s jealous live-in lover Bob (Peter Boyer)" . . . . " Boyer is a master of facial expressions and mannerisms: petulant, bitchy, insecure, manipulative. He is brilliant in the Act I finale." -- Bay Weekly (writer not listed)

"Beyond Therapy is Christopher Durang’s best play, and in Annapolis, the Bay Theatre Company is showing us why" . . . . "These actors . . . play these characters beautifully." -- Tim Treanor, DC Theatre Scene
　
"Bay Theatre's current production of Christopher Durang's 1981 comedy Beyond Therapy is consistently beyond funny, often bordering on hysterical" . . . . "Peter Boyer, another Bay favorite, returns as Bob, investing his character with frustration, hurt and a strong will to survive, all with delightful comic undertones." -- Mary Johnson,The Baltimore Sun

This little show runs through March 20.

Tra-la-la-la-Bah, Tra-la, Humbug

You have 2 weeks left to see A Broadway Christmas Carol at Metro Stage in Alexandria, VA. I play Ebeneezer Scrooge. Yeah! That guy! A Broadway Christmas Carol is "a delightful and unexpected mix of show tune song parodies and Charles Dickens’ classic tale."


We officially opened two weeks ago to rave reviews, like so --

"A Broadway Christmas Carol retells the Dickens story with the help of only three actors and one pianist, all of them extremely talented performers. Peter Boyer plays Ebenezer Scrooge, the perfect embodiment of the stingy old crank at the beginning of the show. Boyer is a talented, agile dancer as well as a powerful singer and his crisp performance is essential to the success of Christmas Carol." -- Barbara Mackay, Washington Examiner

"There's very little "bah humbug" as this high-wattage, all-star cast tackles a timeless tale and gives it new life in the perfect medium for a musical message of ultimate uplift. Three talented area performers bring their Broadway-big voices and broad comedic talent to the completely audience-friendly intimacy of MetroStage and pull it off with infectious hilarity and brio." -- David Hoffman, Fairfax Times

"It’s a Vaudevillian Christmas tale from Merry Olde England, mined gleefully from Charles Dickens." . . . "Peter Boyer gives us Ebenezer Scrooge . . . played with delicious aplomb" . . . "A tip-top cast . . . ." -- Jordan Wright, Alexandria Times

"Charles Dickens, Broadway, vaudeville and slapstick collide merrily in “A Broadway Christmas Carol”, an early gift from Alexandria’s Metro Stage." . . . "The sets are simple but effective, and the four-member cast is versatile and talented." . . . "[Peter Boyer's] musical range and comedic timing are superb." -- Carla Branch, Alexandria News

"The show’s strong suit is its zany quartet of a cast who milk the laughs out of the material in a manner reminiscent of the parodies which were a staple of 1950s and ‘60s comedy and variety television shows." . . . "Peter Boyer [has] a fine voice and an appealingly sly sense of humor." -- Gary McMillan, DC Theatre Scene

Road Trips Are Good For The Soul

The Comedy of Errors and Scapin! closed a couple of weeks ago.

Jenny's out in Ohio again, teaching a stage combat workshop. I headed out there for the weekend to visit her and a few friends old and new and to see the latest incarnation of Tecumseh! Go see it, make the road trip, it's excellent.

The road trip was a great little escape. My connection to the world via cell phone and TV and internet was severely and marvelously reduced.

On the way to Ohio, I met some great folks in Grafton, WVa., when I got a flat tire. If your car breaks down, try to break down in Grafton.

Go see Tecumseh! -- yes, I'm repeating -- it's worth repeating: It's a wonderful production of an excellent story, go see it.

I'm Not The Caveman

I'm the one in the hat.

Booya, Baby!

Another review, this time in the Baltimore Sun. And they thought the show was "excellent."

The review also said, "Boyer is hilarious in his three roles."


So -- come see it -- Bay Theatre, Annapolis, playing through Nov. 8. Get tickets before they're gone!

Headline: Best In Show

According to the review from the Bay Weekly, Bay Theatre's production of Sylvia "is as puppylicious as Bil-Jac liver treats."

Also:

"Rounding out the cast is Peter Boyer . . . . He is Tom, a proud dog owner who brings the subtle one-upsmanship of the mommy wars to the dog park. He is Phyllis, Kate’s canine-phobic friend and confidante. He is Leslie, an androgynous therapist and marriage counselor. As all three, he is marvelous."