I’ll Be Damned
Opening Night: July 1, 2010
Closing: July 18, 2010
Theater: Vineyard Theatre
I’ll Be Damned is the story of a friendless, comic-book-loving homeschooler named Louis who receives a seemingly irresistible offer from Satan. Louis’ mother is a little late in coming to terms with her son growing up, God seems lost in his vision of a perfect world, and Louis is discovering himself as he attempts to find just one true friend. This fresh new musical comedy begs the universal question: "Is there a way to make people like you without having to sell your soul to the devil?"
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July 13, 2010
It’s tough to criticize a theater company whose mission is to "promote mercy, beauty and truth through performance and service." That is the self-professed goal of the youth-oriented JARADOA (Just a Roomful of Artists Doing Outreach And), whose new musical "I’ll Be Damned" is on display at the Vineyard Theatre.
READ THE REVIEWJuly 13, 2010
It’s heartening to see established stage performers such as Mary Testa and Kenita R. Miller championing the work of young new writers by appearing in it. It’s equally heartening to see young people forming companies such as Jaradoa (Just a Roomful of Artists Doing Outreach and) Theater to insure that their work gets produced and seen. Unfortunately, inexperienced artists aren’t always the best judges of when their babies are ready to walk. Such is the case with “I’ll Be Damned,” an irritatingly naive, dramaturgically challenged musical-comedy riff on the Faust legend, being presented by Jaradoa at the Vineyard Theatre.
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July 13, 2010
Heaven and hell both serve as backdrops in “I’ll Be Damned,” the elongated sketch of a musical now at the Vineyard Theater. But the true spiritual location of this faux-naïf tale of a latter-day Faust seems to be just around the corner from “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” Or perhaps down the street from “Pee-wee’s Playhouse.”
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July 13, 2010
In I’ll Be Damned — the unsalvageable musical Jaradoa Theater is producing at the Vineyard — home-schooled and friendless Louis Foster (Jacob Hoffman) makes a pact with Satan (Kurt Robbins) in which he forfeits his soul Faust-like in exchange for a pal who "genuinely likes me for who I am."
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July 13, 2010
Professional theatre aimed primarily for youngsters can be problematic. A play or musical should not only enhance or hopefully challenge a child’s frame of reference, it should also be rewarding for adults who will undoubtedly be the escorts. I went a little apprehensively to I’ll Be Damned, a new musical produced by the Jaradoa Theatre, a company of dedicated professional and non-professional theater artists with a lofty goal: to use theater as a tool for students to "promote mercy, beauty and truth" within the community. That goal and this production is well served by the company’s managing artistic director April NickellThat I left the performance glad to have been there and with a smile on my face is not an insignificant admission for this critic.
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