Review of Dead Broads Yapping at The Public House Theatre

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Dead Broads Yapping. It was directed by Stacey Smith. It was about Amelia Earhart (Caroline Nash), Joan of Arc (Courtney Crary), and Jackie Kennedy (Marie Maloney) doing a talk show with a bunch of people who were dead. I thought it was a great idea for a show, but I thought the characters could have been less on one note. You didn't have to think, "why is this character angry about this?" or "why is this character smiling?" because one character was angry about everything and one was always smiling. I understand that sketch comedy usually doesn't have a lot of dimensions, but I still think it would have been better to have more dimensions for the characters. Even if the characters didn't have many layers, there were still some funny parts!

I think it was a funny idea because you usually don't think of those people who were so different meeting in the afterlife. I think of Jackie Kennedy meeting her husband, not Joan of Arc and Amelia Earhart. You would never imagine them having a talk show; you wouldn't even imagine them meeting. It is a really funny concept. During the talk show there were different segments. They do interviews with different people that are dead but they also do individual segments. Like Amelia Earhart does things that are "flying off the shelves" literally and figuratively. My favorite one was Jackie Kennedy's Fashion Oh Nos. I like it because of how she only said oh no to things you see people walking around the street wearing today but she said oh yes for brooches and pea coats and hats and she didn't have pictures of just random people wearing those. She had pictures of her wearing them!

Eli Whitney (Ben Larrison), who invented the cotton gin, when they asked him questions because he was one of the guest stars, always replied "I invented the cotton gin." He always answered in the same way, just looking forward and stuttering. Then he always ended up saying the same thing, "I invented the cotton gin." I really liked it when Teddy Roosevelt (Keenan Camp) wrestled the wine bottle because it was really funny. I think that was the funniest part of the show. It was so funny because he basically tackled the wine bottle, and even though the bottle wasn't putting up any force, he acted like it was. Teddy Roosevelt was there as their manager. I thought that was a very clever idea.

I have been seeing a lot of Joan of Arc stuff. And my next review will be of St. Joan; so you have that to look forward to--more Joan of Arc stuff. This Joan of Arc was more angry and she was never sad, she was only angry. When Joan of Arc came on stage I knew she was different than the other Joans I've seen lately because she was less girly and the other two were always kind. This Joan was never kind. I think that the actress depicted Joan that way because she thought that she was a very manly woman because she went to war. She was always very serious because of her religion. In the other plays Joan was happy sometimes and she didn't wear her armor everywhere and she had a sense of humor and was not deadpan. In Dead Broads Yapping, they kind of made fun of Joan of Arc. I knew they would make fun of her, but I didn't know it would be in this way.

People who would like this show are people who like crazy depictions of historical characters, brooches attached to pea coats and hats, and Teddy Roosevelt wrestling a wine bottle. A lot of people will like this. I saw a lot of people having a good time!

Photo: Heather Scholl Photography