‘MACHOMER’ delights at Hanna
Before the action starts, the voice of Rick Miller, the creator and sole performer of ‘MACHOMER,’ now in a short run at the Hanna Theatre asks, “How many of you have seen the Simpsons TV show within the last month?”
The majority of the audience screamed a positive response. He then asked, “How many of you have read Shakespeare’s ‘MACBETH’ in the last month? A few feeble voices, including mine, responded in the affirmative. In actuality, I lied. I haven’t picked up a copy of ‘MACBETH’ in many a year, but I did read it in high school and probed it deeply in two Shakespearean theatre classes in college and have seen at least a dozen productions of one of the Bard’s
greatest tragedies. Someone needed to stand up forthe Bard!
What did Miller’s questions have to do with the show? ‘MACHOMER’ is a hyper-meld of Shakespeare and 50 Simpsons voices. And, yes, you guessed it, Homer is Macbeth, well, is Machomer.
The show actually follows most of the original script,though it is abbreviated. But as pronounced and phrased by Bart, Ned Flanders, Troy McClurem, Barney Gumble and Marge, the words take on altered meaning.
Add some classic Simpson’s characteristic lines, and you have an idea of what the evening is like.
Capsule Judgment This little-over-an-hour intermissionless production is not for Shakespearean purists. It is for Simpson followers. Those of us who aren’t “Simpsonites” greatly appreciated the tremendous talent of Miller and the creative use of the cartoon power point presentation that accompanied Miller’s voices and antics, but weren’t swept up in the gales of laughter which surrounded us.
