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PRAISE FOR LEGS AND ALL
“Deft physical comedy… A sassy and shrewd physical-comic deconstruction of romance by two hapless, winsome characters — an eat-drink-man-woman-pie sort of thing. I wept copiously at the precision here, but most people will likely laugh and reach out for their loved ones, or at least warmly squeeze the knee of the patron seated next to them.”
- SF Guardian
“Legs And All is dubbed as a ‘magical look at the mundane’ but, more than just that, it’s an inspired bit of performance art created and executed splendidly by two world class physical comedians, a radiant pair of skilled and hilariously deadpanning counter culture artistes who instantly made me feel as though I were watching Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin.”
-Entertainment Today
“A brilliant translation of the details of conversant life as we know it, taking these details a few steps beyond Harold Pinter and flinging them with utmost precision into a tantalizing kinetic comedy.” -SF Bay Times
“Legs and All is the kind of art that you wish life would imitate more often. Legs and All is everything that makes clown theatre great. It’s funny, clever, conceptual, and innovative. Shapiro and Musante raise the craft of clowning to new levels. This is a beautiful piece that should not be missed.”
-NYTheatre.com
“Virtually everything about this magical show is pitch-perfect. Summer Shapiro is a master clown, and shares her gift with Musante—who channels a boyish Roberto Benigni– to bring us some of the best physical comedy I’ve seen in years.”
-Scallywag & Vagabond, NY
“In Legs and All, Summer Shapiro and Peter Musante ditch words in favor of a breathtaking physical vocabulary and weave a story that’s poetic, sweet and utterly mesmerizing. It is a spellbinding 50 minutes of theater, an innovative work that captures the ups and downs of human relationships with childlike energy and perfect comic timing.”
-Show Business Weekly, NY
“A kinetic poem…Legs and All provides the audience with a disarming and engaging hour of nearly wordless pantomime. The whole undertaking is silently played with a child-like charm and equally child-like intensity, which could melt the heart of even the most hardened, cynical, world-weary audience (a/k/a New Yorkers).”
- Cultural Capitol, NY
“Sparks fly when the brilliant physical comedienne Summer Shapiro teams up with equally-talented clown Peter Musante for a bittersweet and hilarious show about the delicate negotiations that go on between two people embarking upon a romantic relationship. Brandi Brandes’ live percussion playing adds an extra layer of quirk to the pair’s lively and often surreal physical escapades.”
-Chloe Veltman, lies like truth Arts Journal
“Legs and All is the sort of show that leads one to gush, a relentlessly charming, overwhelmingly beautiful piece of art. “ -That Sounds Cool, NY
PRAISE FOR IN THE BOUDOIR
“Shapiro is a master of physical comedy. She speaks volumes in the raising of an eyebrow or with the flick of her wrist.”
-NYTheatre.com
“It’s easy to fall in love with Summer Shapiro. This masterful, sweetly-scathing performer conspired to make the entire audience fall at her feet during a solo performance of her show In the Boudoir at The Climate Theater on Saturday night. She also managed to get two random male theatergoers to fight with plastic swords, nunchucks and pistols on stage to win her affections — without doing much more than taking their hands, whispering a few quiet words to them and looking at them intently in the eyes. And all of this while rampaging around the tiny Climate stage in a frothy white hooped tutu and sparkly heels, throwing plates of cold spaghetti around and trying desperately to make an impression on — and be impressed by — the opposite sex.
In the Boudoir tells a deceptively simple story about a young female clown’s love life. When a date fails to show up to a candlelit dinner for two at the clown’s house, she compensates for her disappointment by engaging in elaborate romantic fantasies.
In one scene, she persuades a male theatergoer to join her on stage. Once on stage, she persuades the man to eat a piece of spaghetti with her as in the famous sequence from Disney’s Lady and the Tramp. In another, she asks male audience members to blow up a yellow balloon for her, having failed at the task herself. The balloon gets stuck to her fingers while she tries to tie a knot in its end. Suddenly she drops her girlish facade and becomes Terminator-like monster-machine. Stomping about the stage making hydraulic noises like a malfunctioning Stepford Wife, she attempts to destroy the balloon under her heel. The image is at once hilarious, frightening and sexually bizarre. Veering erratically and erotically between the cliches of the helpless, ditzy female and the aggressive femme fatale, Shapiro both explodes stereotypes while making us recognize the universal desires for romantic passion within us all.
-Chloe Veltman, lies like truth Arts Journal
Links to press articles:
NYTheatre.com: www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/showpage.php?t=legs11014
Show Business Weekly: www.showbusinessweekly.com/archive2010/610/legs.shtml
LA Entertainment Today – www.entertainmenttoday.net/content/view/847/51/
Cultural Capitol, NY – www.culturalcapitol.com/2010/03/09/legs-and-all/
That Sounds Cool, NY – www.thatsoundscool.blogspot.com/2010/03/legs-and-all.html
Scallywag And Vagabond - www.scallywagandvagabond.com/2010/03/two-master-clowns-working-outside-the-box/
NYtheatre.com – www.nytheatre.com/nytheatre/showpage.php?t=legs11014
SF Bay TImes – www.sfbaytimes.com/index.php?sec=article&article_id=11489
lies like truth Arts Journal – http://www.artsjournal.com/lies/2008/07/of-cupids-and-clowns.html
