The Hexagon comedy troupe National Theatre D
Some things are free for a reason.
This quickly became obvious while attending what was billed as a "scintillating political, satirical and musical comedy revue" known as "The Hexagon" at the National Theatre. The performance was part of the theatre's "Monday Night at the National" fall performance series, where various concerts, musicians and drama troupes perform for small audiences. The catch: all performances are free and tickets are distributed on a first come, first served basis.
This wasn't what was scary. After all, many of D.C.'s finest things are free. But it was slightly worrying to realize that the average age of the audience was about 97.3 and there were still empty makeshift lawn chair "seats" when the show started.
Expecting a Capitol Steps-esque rousing musical comedy extravaganza from this 50-year-old nonprofit organization of volunteers, it was greatly disappointing to find this is basically a group of passable middle-aged singers who sound a lot funnier in their heads than they do out loud.
The "songs," if they could be called that, written by the cast themselves, were dull and repetitive, with no particular insight or zings at the political climate. The lame puns and jokes began with the first musical number and kept on coming. As opposed to the Steps' sharp imitations and parodies of popular songs, the Hexagon's music is reminiscent at best of a bad dinner theatre act and at worst a middle school spring pageant. Much of the comedy was overstated and cartoonish, and while it elicited chuckles from the largely senior citizen crowd, it completely missed the young-adult humor target.
The only even remotely funny tidbit was in the performance's non-musical "Newsbreak," which was sort of like "Weekend Update" on "Saturday Night Live" - way back when "SNL" was funny.
Toward the end of the performance, there was a great setup for a parody of a talking-heads news program called "Rehash," ("News everyone is sick of but are afraid to tune out in case we say something significant"). However, this too soon dissolved into a nonsensical song and more cartoonish humor that only a 9-year-old would find hilarious.
Besides that, every song included the requisite homophobic-straight-man-does-gay-man impersonation interspersed with Northerners attempting Southern accents (and failing) and pretending to be anyone from Laura Bush to Rumsfeld. In fact, the entire show leaves the audience with that uncomfortable, embarrassed-for- someone-else feeling, kind of like watching a Ben Stiller movie or a George W. Bush speech.
The final skit included the entire cast singing about how "they're 50!" Well, perhaps it's time for an early retirement.
Upcoming performances of Monday Night at the National include a magic show, a dance troupe and a poetry reading. They are held at 6 and 7:30 p.m. in the Helen Hayes Gallery of the National Theatre. The next main stage performance of "The Hexagon" will be in March 2006 at the Duke Ellington School in Georgetown. Save 45 minutes of agony and watch "The Daily Show," instead.
