Michael Mitnick’s play is daring enough at its most conventionalafter all, were watching a small-screen celebrity deal with the travails of turning 50. As home-shopping hawker Babs (Marty Mukhalian) suffers her meltdown, Babs catches fire with the introduction of a guileless ornithologist (Charles Norris) and the network boss, Jocelyn (Hannah Victoria Franklin), who does for cable TV what Miranda Priestly did for fashion in The Devil Wears Prada. Not content to let these wonderful characters unspool in their own reality, playwright Mitnick grabs the wheel of their fortunes and pulls them all into a ditch with his decision to have Babs fears of extinction sprout wings. Literally. What follows is silly, convoluted and yet still watchable. Babs the Dodo is far from my favorite WET show, but for me, theyre like watching Coen brothers movies. You wont like every story, but each one says something fascinating about the artists creativity. Babs the Dodo is far from my favorite WET show, but for me, theyre like watching Coen brothers movies. You wont like every story, but each one says something fascinating about the artists creativity. KEVIN PHINNEY (See Kevin’s full review.)
Mondays, Thursdays-Sundays, 7:30 p.m. Starts: Feb. 3. Continues through March 14, 2011
