A Date with Elizabeth Aspenlieder

With New Year's Eve you get a hangover but with Elizabeth Aspenlieder you get laughs. (All photos by Kevin Sprague.)

(My review of Bad Dates is now available at Berkshire Fine Arts. I recommend it highly.)

The Wall Street Journal called her "One of the funniest actresses on the East Coast," causing her career course to change. As one of the regular company members at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts, she spends her summers playing drama and tragedy as well as comedy. But with 2007's Rough Crossing, and this past summer's The Ladies Man, she has honed her gift for making audiences laugh.

Shortly she will assume the identity of Haley Walker, a brassy divorced mom with a teenage daughter, her new starring role in the one-woman tour-de-farce, "Bad Dates."

Aspenlieder makes it feel like Haley is sharing her innermost secrets just with you.

Scheduled for a winter long run from January 9 to March 8, Aspenlieder will have the task of keeping things light and funny during a sometimes dark and dreary season. Written by the immensely gifted Theresa Rebeck, Bad Dates is a sharp-tongued, ironic look at what multi-tasking women have to cope with today.

How do you survive as a single mother and working mom while searching for elusive romance in a devious world? How do you pick shoes to wear from a collection of more than 600? How do you know if you've gone over that invisible line?

It is from the familiarity of these situations that much comedy can be extracted, and watching a recent rehearsal, it is amazing what Haley's daily diary of dilemmas discloses.

Under the firm hand of director Adrianne Krstansky, Haley is always in motion, fussing with her appearance, and fulminating about her latest mishap. Although alone on stage, Haley is constantly monitoring the reaction of her guests. "The audience is having a two way conversation with her the whole time," Krstansky notes, "and is brought into her life in a very personal way."

What David Mamet does for na'er do wells and petty con-men, Rebeck does for the women who date them. "Is sex that much more fun for men than women, that they'd do it with just anyone? That would be one conclusion. The other would be that maybe men don't have enough to think about."

How many pairs of shoes?

You can preview this show by visiting its website and a video blog that Aspenlieder has created for us to enjoy. There is also a "Bad Date Story Contest" in which you are invited to share your horror stories. The first entry is hilarious.

One final note. If you are a Berkshire resident you can get some pretty serious discounts on tickets at Shakespeare & Company, too, many performances are 40% off regular prices. In this case you will pay $21.60 for previews and $28.80 for the rest of the performances.

And here's tip to the guys: if you think this is a show for women, and pass it up, you lose. There is more valuable information about getting dates, and getting, um, results, than you can imagine. Be smart. Go. It will be a good date...for both of you.

Columbus Day Weekend

A "Trock" Dancer Prepares

It was both whacky and wonderful in the Berkshires over the Columbus Day Weekend. My friends from Boston could not get a room nearby, so they did not get to enjoy the Trockaderos de Monte Carlo who played the Hunter Center at Mass MoCA in North Adams, MA. It was a great show, and you can read my review here:

Larry Murray's Berkshire Fine Arts Review

Since I wrote it, several people have asked me about some of the more unusual dance phrases I employed in the critique.

So here are a couple of images to illustrate what a ponche and a "fish" dive are.

The ballerina is doing a "ponche" with one leg en pointe and the other pointing at midnight, a feat which i have never seen a male dancer able to perform.

And this is the gorgeous "Fish" Dive, which is as complicated as a it is beautiful and only lasts a second or two.

Another wonderful review of this performance was published by the very astute Gail Burns which you can find here:

Gail Sez Review

While North Adams is in no danger of becoming another Provincetown, it surely was nice to see a little diversity in the artistic offerings. And the sold out houses for the "Trocks" indicates that there is a market here for both more dance, and more camp.

The Trocks: Gentlemen Dancers in Tulle Tutus and Toe Shoes

The founder of the Boston Ballet, E. Virginia Williams, danced for the real Ballets Russe de Monte Carlo, the one founded by René Blum and Léonide Massine. It is a company that spawned many imitators. If she was still around today, I would take her to see their satirical successor, Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo which makes its Berkshire appearance on October 10 and 11 at Mass MoCA in North Adams. It is a performance not to be missed.

Combining a wicked comic sense of humor with a devoted respect and true talent for classical dance, the all-male, 16-member "Clown Princes of Ballet" dance the fine line between high art and high camp. Presented with Jacob's Pillow, the "Trocks" whom the San Francisco Chronicle calls "one of the great comic creations of the American stage," perform parodies of ballet cornerstones complete with gargantuan toe shoes and diaphanous tutus. They have the ability to turn white ballets black, and to turn women's roles into opportunities for men.

These turbo-charged ballerinas are true athletes, with amazing flexibility, questionable artistic sensitivity, and the ability to spin like tops.

One of the most delightful aspects of the troupe is its outrageous sense of humor. Each of the dancers has a drag, excuse me, an travesti persona, and an alter ego. Take handsome and beautiful Joseph Jeffries for example.


His dancing name is MINNIE VAN DRIVER. Always running from rehearsals, costume fittings and performances, Miss Driver has a strong sense of movement. She has performed world wide and has a natural aptitude for touring. Famous for her beautiful port de bras, she gives credit to her many hours behind the wheel.


His alter ego is WILLIAM VANILLA. Despite the fact that he is American, he is very popular within the company. He is extremely personable, the ballerinas very much enjoy dancing with him, the management finds him agreeable, his costumes are never soiled, his fans admire his directness, he photographs well, he keeps regular hours, brushes his teeth after every meal, and he has never said a bad word about anybody. He will never really understand Russian ballet.

Another popular dancer is Calvin Gentry.


On stage he is known as HELEN HIGHWATERS. This waif was orphaned at the age of three when her mother, a ballerina of some dubious distinction, impaled herself on the first violinist’s bow after a series of rather uncontrolled fouette voyage. Helen was raised and educated with the “rats” of the Opera House but the trauma of her childhood never let her reach her full potential. However, under the kind and watchful eye of the Trockadero, she has begun to flower.


He also adopts the well known name of JACQUES d’AMBROSIA. As such he claims he was originally trained as an astronaut before entering the world of ballet. Strong but flexible, good natured but dedicated, sensible but given to unbelievable flights of fantastic behavior, Mr. d’Aniels is an expert on recovering from ballet injuries (including the dreaded “Pavlova’s clavicle”). The list of great ballerinas he has danced with is a long as the list of great ballerinas who will never dance with him again.

Here is a collection of candid photos of the artists as they carefully prepare for their upcoming appearance.



For Tickets go to the Mass Moca website.


The Trocks on line Website


Some background from The New Yorker


Deborah Jowett weighs in for the Village Voice


Boys who dream of being ballerinas. From Point Magazine.


Pitres a Pointes from Marseille - en français


And from London Ballet.com