Mocking the Media

  Overall this is a very good show. There are only acouple of skits in the mix that are completely dead. Towards the end, forinstance, the troupe takes on conservative cable news network Fox News in a bitcalled “Fair and Balanced.” Making fun of Fox News is a trickypropositiontheir programming is such a strong parody of itself that trying toexaggerate its juvenile brand of conservatism for the benefit of stage comedycomes off feeling a bit forced.

  However, weak skits like “Fair and Balanced” and “ILove Indiana”(which features LaDisa as an extremely sweet but terminally unfunny nerd) arecomfortably outnumbered by the funnier stuff. Some of the best moments involveindividuals at odds with the forces of mass media. There’s a sketch early onfeaturing Melissa Kingston as a camera personality trying to get a tearfulreaction for a tissue commercial from a particularly emotionless Megan McGee.In another skit a TV interview with three Chinese girls ends with a savvyturnaround.

  There are also a couple of recurring segments thatcarry the show quite well, for example parodies of yogurt commercial dialoguesbetween two women. Oddly, the lampooned yogurt commercials show some ofBroadminded’s most interesting moments where they up addressing some prettyheavy emotional issueseverything from unrequited romantic love to the inneremptiness that comes from modern consumer culture. The recurring pre-recordedTV newsmagazine segments aren’t as good, but the comedy is just as interesting.They cast a comic light on what happens when parents push their children toohard to achieve at everything from being a real estate agent to the antichrist.Still quite new to local theater, Broadminded continues to show a great deal ofpromise.

  Broadminded Now in 3-D!runs through June 29 at the Alchemist Theatre.