Angie and I are furiously preparing to hit the road today for the Double or Nothin' Tour, but first I wanted to share another side of Angie's brilliance.
If you don't know already, one of Angie's many hats is that of actor. She's been working on a new show called Barbicide, currently in development by the Theatre Project. Written by Sean Pomposello and directed by Christian Amato, Barbicide is a new take on Sweeney Todd. "Imagine if Jack Kerouac, Jim Thompson and Mario Puzzo were to open an unauthorized parody of Sweeney Todd. It would be Barbicide, a tasty, noirish revenge play of interwoven monologues, underscoring the consequences of coincidence and fate."
When I got to the city last Wednesday, Angie met me at Penn Station and we went straight to Moustache Greenwich Tonsorial, a barber shop (see what they did there?) in the Village that hosted the show's staged readings.
The show's 4 actors play a total of 7 characters, switching effortlessly between the roles using just their bodies and voices. Arthur Aulisi, as Todessco/The Judge, even has several conversations with himself.
Angie plays Jo, the 1964 Queens street beat version of the Sweeney Todd character, Joanna, a lovelorn orphan(?) being raised under the controlling hand of The Judge.
Clockwise from top left: Arthur Aulisi as Toddesco/Judge; Angie Atkinson as Jo; Arthur Aulisi, Paulette Oliva as Ms. Lionetti/Beggar Woman; Douglas Sharf as Ant Knee/Tony
Angie will have the privilege of continuing the role when Barbicide opens at the Players Theatre in October. It's her first Off Broadway show!
Even as a staged reading, the show is mesmerizing and brutal. It's gritty and hard, set in a time when Times Square was a playground for pornographers and prostitutes and violent crimes were soaring. I can't wait to see it fully realized.
