.22 Caliber Mouth Review by Women Around Town
Stephanie Amy Collazo wrote a wonderful article about .22 Caliber Mouth on the the fantastic website – Woman Around Town.
Stephanie Amy Collazo wrote a wonderful article about .22 Caliber Mouth on the the fantastic website – Woman Around Town.
Cindy Pierre wrote a wonderful review in Stage and Cinema of Lauren Robert’s .22 Caliber Mouth following a special industry concert performance held June 29th and 30th in New York City.
You may read the .22 Caliber Mouth review: A Musical To Watch Out For on Stage and Cinema.
A special industry invitation…
The Herald Times
- NPR
Broadway World wrote a great piece about .22 Caliber Mouth on Friday May 28th. Thank you to everybody for your wonderful comments, support and encouragement.
Check out the article “.22 Caliber Mouth Invitation-Only Concert“
Bill Cosgriff, Artistic Director
American Renaissance Theatre Company
Deb Armelino, Actor, Singer
Recently the director of The Fountain of Youth, Laughter on the 23rd Floor and the Off-Broadway premier of Sessions at Playwrights Horizons, Steven Petrillo has chosen to develop Lauren Robert’s .22 Caliber Mouth for a high profile New York Production.
Please see more about Steven at his site: StevenPetrillo.com.
We look forward to bringing you more information soon.
Book By Lauren Robert/ Music by Lauren Robert/ Lyrics By Lauren Robert
additional music and lyrics by Timothy Warmen
SYNOPSIS
.22 Caliber Mouth is about the danger and power of words spoken, and the secrets that go unsaid. This is revealed to us through five broken and isolated people who when life brings together, are forever changed.
When Deanne Campino and Colin Maitlin meet in Mifflin’s bar in New York City one late afternoon, their union ignites a far too-familiar attraction and slap- and- tickle repartee’ borne of their shame-filled secret pasts. Yet, life’s mysterious timing looms large and their meeting sparks in each a hope that this time the terrible secrets that have shaped their lives might lay dormant long enough to release them to “have something”…together.
The play is ultimately about their struggle to escape the shipwrecks of their pasts and the effort to sustain enough hope to want to reach for something better.
The story holds that possibility for oneof the characters while the other is propelled by the demons of the psyche to repeat their tragic beginnings.
Three other characters complete this ensemble. Deanne’s sister Ronnie Campino manifests her own psychic injury in a dissociative way that isolates her from the world and alienates her from her sister and herself. In act II, Ronnie’s persistent attempts to connect with Deanne, force a life-changing confrontation in which Deanne insists that childhood truths be revealed. Frankie Canton, Deanne’s drug- addled, street -savvy friend from their days together in psychiatric hospitals, brings humor and a contorted form of nurturance to Deanne’s life.
Frankie conducts business from his Central Park bench office with his prostitute friend, the beautiful, transvestite, Carmel. The hopeful Carmel tries to fend off the pull of Frankie’s downward spiral. She struggles hard against her own weariness and longings for their “glamorous” past as support staff for the prizefighter Joe Frazier.
A final convergence of the five characters at a party thrown by Deanne (her first reachfor joy in years) is where the action culminates in devastating revelations that change the course of the characters lives.
MUSIC
Thirteen songs weave their way through this drama. The songs are extremely integrated with the text. They provide more access to the hurt, pain and yearning of the characters than their aggressive and defended dialog allows.
CAST BREAKDOWN
Deanne Campino: early 40’s, bright, attractive, educated, manic-depressive
Colin Maitlin: late 40’s,sexy, world-weary, hungry, secretive, incendiary
Ronnie Campino (Deanne’s sister): late 30’s, heavy, adapted, lonely
Frankie Canton (Deanne’s friend): 30-40, homeless, colorful, drug dealer, pimp
Carmel: 30-40, street-wise yet optimistic, male transvestite