If you have ever idly wondered about the outlandish events that could occur within the confines of a New York City bar on a regular basis, this show brings those random thoughts to fruition. On The Rocks, in its third successful month of new sketches, offered up a season-appropriate, holiday-themed twist to its scenarios.
"On The Rocks Holiday Bonanza" could be described as the dramatic equivalent of a flash mob. It is as if your drunken bar friends randomly decide to break out in theatrics and you are surprised to find that they are not slurring, are quite organized, and actually have legitimate talent.
The production is a series of mini-plays that explore bizarre occurrences that hypothetically take place in your typical New York bar. Set in cozy Cornerstone Tavern, it began (albeit 20 minutes late) with its actors lined up behind the bar reading the answers to the audience participation question offered on slips of paper to patrons before the show began. The question ("Wanna share your story of when you found out the truth about Santa?") served as the perfect topic to segue from the casual schmoozing at the bar to the start of the show.
The transitions from act to act were smooth despite the significant changes in setting and plot. Act One, titled "Jingle Ballerz" (yes, with a Z) is about an over-zealous, brown-nosing bartender applicant responding to a craigslist ad. The applicant, Jazz, arrives at his interview with an entourage of elf-dressed women who proceed to treat Jazz's prospective employer with an impromptu dance performance, complete with twerking! Suddenly, a dance-off reminiscent of the choreography in Michael Jackson's iconic "Beat It" music video ensues with a rival job applicant named Nicholas of the "St.Nicks" crew.
"Mixing Cheer" examines a scenario of despondent and disgruntled elves that have been banished from the North Pole and into a bar to live among and serve humans. Their leader, Chip, encourages them out of their funk by delighting them with the idea of getting humans inebriated with spiked eggnog. A young, belligerent, and slurring Santa with an inexplicably heavy southern accent enters and unrelentingly berates them all. Santa's hysterical performance was a definite highlight of the production!
"A Dating Carol" is a satiric rendition of "A Christmas Carol" with the protagonist -- a hopelessly single 27-year-old woman -- forced to face her relationship demons. This act led smoothly into intermission with the following instruction to the audience that offered an unforgiving reference to the protagonist's dating life in high school: "You might as well go to the bathroom or just grab a drink from the bar because this is a bunch of years with no shit happening."
Acts Four, Five, and Six, respectively titled "JFC", "Harry Potter and the....", and "Twas the Night", were quite entertaining."Twas the Night", a satirical poem that examines a typical night at the bar offered a resolute and theme-appropriate conclusion to this production.
The cast fought an upward battle against defending the credibility of this presentation based on its casual and miniscule setting and limited resources (at one point, a cast member flickered the bar lights to transition between scenes). Despite these obvious hardships, they try earnestly to entertain you and they undoubtedly succeed.
All in all, the production and the performers remained consistent, seamless, and natural. The cast was genuinely humorous with current, relevant material, and not a trace of corny or cliched humor to be found. "On The Rocks" is unrelentingly hilarious -- a definite must-see to brighten up your mid-work week blues!
