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Regional Reviews: Phoenix Top Gun: Live, Abridged and Completely Underfunded
Also see Gil's reviews of The Cat in the Hat, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum and Other Desert Cities
Top Gun: Live, Abridged and Completely Underfunded which McNamara wrote and directed, followed last fall's hit spoof of the "Fifty Shades of Grey" novel entitled Fifty Shades of Felt which was a co-production of All Puppet Players and Nearly Naked Theatre. And while McNamara's Top Gun was not quite on the same level of humor and outlandishness as Felt was, it was a fairly accurate retelling of the Cruise film, albeit abridged, with all of the key scenes from the film intact. It also featured plenty of laughs, excellent puppet designs and, like past All Puppet Players shows, was produced on a shoestring budget. Top Gun, just like the film, follows the story of Maverick (the Cruise character), a hot shot loose cannon fighter jet pilot, and his co-pilot Nick, aka Goose, as they are sent to the elite fighter pilot school that goes by the name of "top gun." There, Maverick competes with his rival, "Ice Man," to be the best in the class. But a woman who is an instructor at the school, and with whom Maverick has a romantic relationship, is who he learns the most from. With many intense jet fighting sequences, and a soundtrack that featured the hit songs "Danger Zone" and the Oscar winning "Take My Breath Away," it is easy to see how the film version of Top Gun became the top money making film of 1986. In typical McNamara fashion, the puppets are perfectly cast, and with plenty of humorous results. His Maverick puppet was an extremely faithful Cruise lookalike, with a large flat nose, small eyes, giant shiny white teeth and bushy eyebrows. The character of Goose was actually a goose puppet, albeit one with a very large mustache to more resemble how Anthony Edwards appeared in the film. Ice Man was an ice cream cone wearing Ray Ban sunglasses and, I'm assuming, that for no other reason but to provide a nice touch of geeky humor, Spock from "Star Trek" was featured as a supporting character. And while the pre-show curtain speech mentioned that they only spent $100 on this production, I have to believe they spent slightly more, as the two fighter jets that Scott Horton designed, which were used several times throughout the show, looked very impressive. McNamara's script, while faithful to the film, had many moments for ad libs and also played up the homoerotic nature of the original screenplay, with the puppet masters often adding right after a homoerotic scene: "That was directly from the movie. I'm not kidding." McNamara also threw in plenty of references to other '80s films like Airplane!, Risky Business, Star Wars, Star Trek, and a quick mention of George of the Jungle, plus a modern shout out to "Duck Dynasty." My favorite moment in the show was when Maverick's jet appeared to transform into a giant metal robot by standing on its tail with a mask from the "Transformer" TV series at the top. McNamara commented at that time, "see, we left the price tag on the mask so we can return it once the run of the show finishes!" Not only is McNamara an expert puppet master, writer and director but a savvy businessman as well. The cast of puppeteers featured many individuals who also appeared in Fifty Shades of Felt and they once again showed their skill in making these puppets come to life. With the cast all clad in black, including black sheer hoods that covered their faces, it easily allowed the audience's attention to focus solely on the puppets and not the human operators. While there wasn't a weak member of the cast, I particularly enjoyed Tanner Stuff's take on Poncho the filthy talking bird as well as McNamara proving how keen an improv actor he is by heckling latecomers with hilarious results, but in a sweet and charming way. McNamara's savvy direction included sure-footed guidance of his more than capable puppeteers as well as a few funny touches. These included the inventive use of umbrellas for parachutes, short bits from famous musical scores at key moments along with the famous songs from the movie used effectively but not in an overbearing way. And while not every joke landed and the script did meander a bit in parts, McNamara and his cast's comic talents and improvisational skills added plenty of chuckles to the high testosterone level of the plot. Top Gun: Live, Abridged and Completely Underfunded was another success for the All Puppet Players, the Mesa Encore Theatre and Shaun Michael McNamara, and I look forward to seeing what their next production will be in the Phoenix area. Top Gun: Live, Abridged and Completely Underfunded ran from February 7th to February 22nd with performances at the Mesa Encore Theatre's Black Box on Brown theatre. For information on upcoming All Puppet Players productions visit www.allpuppetplayers.com. For information on upcoming productions at Mesa Encore Theatre visit mesaencoretheatre.com. Written, Produced and Directed by Shaun Michael McNamara
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