TP: Cripple Creek delivers classic, comic theater
Source: Times-Picayune
Now this sounds ambitious:
Working with Nikolai Gogol's 1836 comedy of provincial corruption in czarist Russia, director Andrew Kingsley has re-set the play in late 1950s Louisiana in the era of Gov. Earl K. Long. Corruption runs rampant in a backwater burg, or maybe it's New Orleans, where city officials are panicked by a rumor that an inspector general has been sent from Washington to surreptitiously investigate their "vile, filthy town" where bribery, police beatings and cockfighting are commonplace.
Offstage, it just so happens that New Orleans now has its own inspector general, Robert Cerasoli, hired to root out "fiscal abuse, corruption and illegal acts." Cripple Creek invited Cerasoli to play the walk-on role of "The Inspector General" during Thursday night performances and lead a question-and-answer session afterward.
On opening night, the play went up a little after 8 p.m., concluded at 10-something, took a short break and Cerasoli was still answering questions at 11:30.
Kudos Cripple Creek!
