Years ago, California's Reduced Shakespeare Company realized that there's a comic appeal in going through some very, very serious material very, very quickly. The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) was soon joined by All The Great Books (Abridged), The Complete History of the World (Abridged) and so on. Only a few years ago, New York-based Donovan Ensemble started doing something sort of similar to RSC in an entirely different kind of stage performance with Super Spectacular! To Opera With Love.
The 75-minute comedy features Johnnie Niel and Wisconsin native Joe Kolbow casting musically comic glances at Carmen, La Boheme, Madama Butterfly in a show that mixes a love of classic opera with more contemporary styles including Guns ‘n' Roses and Taylor Swift.
The Donovan Ensemble's Super Spectacular! To Opera With Love runs August 27th (at 7:30 pm) and 28th (at 2pm and 7:30 pm) at Carroll University's Otteson Studio Theatre. Tickets can be reserved in advance at Brown Paper Tickets or by phone at: 1-800-838-3006.
