Reader's theater is a good way to present a play without having to spend a lot of money on props and costumes, and because the actors are reading from the scripts, it's possible to cut back on the rehearsal time. But that doesn't mean no rehearsal is necessary.
There were a few actors in "The God BLOG" who read the script as if they are seeing it for the first time, totally botching the inflections and distracting from the content, which is on shaky ground to begin with. Although there are a couple of jokes worthy of a chuckle, most of it is highly derivative and even stolen. For the record, "Airplane" has enough "I picked a bad week to stop X" to last a millenium, and no one should ever "write" another one unless they can truly bring some thing new to it. Anything else is just a lazy cheat, and this script uses the same lame line("I picked a bad week to stop smiting," which really doesn't make any sense to begin with) three times.
I was doubly disappointed because I was pretty excited by the blurb, and I still think there's a good hour of real comedy in the conceit of Heaven as a corporate bureaucracy with Lucifer attempting a hostile takeover. Unfortunately, the author didn't think it through enough and relies on cheap and silly jokes that only serve to distract from the truly satirical elements. For instance, God really isn't presented as the Creator on the verge of losing his empire, but as a mid-level bureaucrat concerned about the doughnuts at the staff meetings. And the title, while clever, has no relevance to the script that I can fathom.
I liked that Lucifer is written as a sort of new age, health- and environmentally-conscious foil to God's (here known as "The Big Guy") excesses, always finding a chance to hawk his latest book, but I don't think the author really understood the power behind that joke and the conceit never really goes anywhere, partly because the terribly miscast actor reading it doesn't seem to get it, either. Instead, there's a lot of focus on random ideas that are done to death. For instance, why is the apostle Paul hard of hearing? Just to allow an opportunity for some silly puns as he repeats what he misunderstands? That wouldn't be so bad if the jokes related to the larger theme, but it seems to me to just be desperate attempts for a cheap laugh.
Remaining performances are 7 p.m. Wednesday and 5 p.m. Saturday.
Bottom Line: Don't bother unless you have a friend in the cast as there are many other Fringe shows deserving of your attention. Ill-conceived and poorly performed, "The God BLOG" doesn't live up to its promises.
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