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“LANCE JONATHAN: MORE ABOUT ME!”

Don’t Tell Mama, NYC

Written & Performed by Peter Michael Marino

EVIL COMIC GENIUS!

I could have Lanced all night! The wildly talented Peter Michael Marino offers “More About Me!” - an autobiographical sketch of the fictional Lance Jonathan, “America’s Most Optimistic Performer”. Marino’s Jim Carrey-esque comic intensity allows him to nail the funniest parts of the show and to animate the less witty sections, which are far and few between. ---Michael Portantiere, InTheater

CLEVER, SPARKLING, AND VERY ENTERTAINING!

Marino’s performance is endlessly energetic and immensely appealing! This bon bon should delight anyone in the theatre business or just a big theatre -what’s that word? Oh, yes - fan!

---Roy Sander, BACK STAGE

CABARET PICK!

In the thirteen years that I’ve reviewed for the Post, I‘ve seen a fair number of performers do shows in which they aim to amuse us by giving us their impressions of really bad performers. The best I’ve seen at this particular game is Peter Michael Marino. The sharply gifted actor/writer created and portrays this memorable character. If you like the quirky Pee-wee Herman, and also the brilliantly off-beat John Cameron Mitchell in “Hedwig”, or the exuberant John Leguizamo in “Freak”, you’ll probably also like this campy, oddly endearing original comic character. This “inside” cabaret spoof is funny, nicely off-center, and with a ring of truth beneath the sweet silliness. You go, Lance!

--- Chip Deffaa, New York Post

“DELILAH DIX & HER BAG OF TRICKS”

Directed & Developed by Peter Michael Marino

2010 Edinburgh Fringe Festival

“DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN” : LONDON

Book & Concept by Peter Michael Marino

I succumbed last night to the narrative appeal of Peter Michael Marino's book, faithfully based on the famous 1985 film of the same name. --EVENING STANDARD

Peter Michael Marino, who came up with the concept and book, achieves the jigsaw-puzzle trick of matching the numbers with the plot. --BLOOMBERG.COM

Peter Michael Marino's book delivers. --TIMEOUT LONDON

Sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll plus a drop of murder keep everything on a more or less adult plane and Peter Michael Marino's book manages to imply the dubious merits of life in the fast lane as well as in the suburbs. --HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

Peter Michael Marino does a fine job of discovering Blondie lyrics that fit and even enhance the storyline. --BRITISH THEATRE GUIDE

The story translates remarkably well for the stage offering a strong, sympathetic plot, exciting chases and a mistaken identity twist reminiscent of black and white post war pot-boilers. --THE STAGE

“DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN” : TOKYO

Book & Concept by Peter Michael Marino

★★★★＝Must see

Although it is not easy to combine music and drama in a rock musical,

this production is one of the rare successful examples.

-- Nikkei Newspaper

I have never thought that the film "DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN" would be adapted for stage. Moreover, although a catalogue musical with tunes of a certain artist has achieved success, I have never even imagined that a musical with songs of Blondie, an American rock band very popular in the 1970s and 1980s, would be put on stage. This Japanese premiere version by G2 (Direction, Translation) is a very fascinating production with a unique rendition, which tactfully combines the story with powerful hit songs, such as "Call Me," "Heart of Glass" and "The Tide Is High” -- Asahi Newspaper, Tokyo

A musical made by fitting pre-existing hit tunes tactfully into a story is called a jukebox musical, but in most cases it does not create much impact, for some reason. The story of "Desperately Seeking Susan", a musical set to the hit songs of the U.S. rock band Blondie, is based on the film of the same title starring Madonna. It is said that the songs used in the musical make the disco generation feel nostalgic, but I, being of a musically-challenged generation, have no special feelings toward rock music and do not even know Blondie. However, fortunately, my concern proved to be unfounded. I found out that each of the Blondie songs is catchy and unique.

-- Takashi Kimura, Sports Nippon Newspaper

“HOLLYWOOD NURSES”

Written by Peter Michael Marino & Sheila Head

Chashama, NYC

Hollywood Nurses is exactly what it bills itself as: "a pulp dime store novel come to life." With their tongues planted firmly in their cheeks, authors Sheila Head and Peter M. Marino have a blast turning two of the medical profession's finest into scandalous tramps.

Head and Marino are equally inventive, and very funny writers.

-- NYTHEATER.com

Playwrights Sheila Head and Peter M. Marino have penned a world as perfectly cut out as a paper doll. This witty 90-minute marathon will have you laughing until you're bursting out of your Depends.

-- CITYSEARCH.com

“Desperate, 'never-was starlet' Delilah Dix is a riot. And not just because of the white-trash celebrity anecdotes (which are hilarious) or the songs (gutsy and catchy yet teetering rather thrillingly on the edge of vocal disaster). No, it's character – in Dix's case, fully realised yet without once seeming forced or over-produced – that drives the showstopper quality of Amy Albert's deliciously hysterical cabaret creation. Delilah isn't just off her head on mouthwash and cocaine - she's deranged and delusional. For one all-too-brief hour, we're happy to slide down the pan with her.”

-- THE LIST, Scotland ★★★★

Dix is the Xanax-addled lovechild of rummy lounge-singing icon Robert Goulet and Amy Sedaris' middle-aged ex-groupie Jerri Blank from Strangers With Candy. The calculated wit which went into creating Amy Albert's drunken alter ego is considerable, and is only outshone by her flawless vocal ability. What better expression of humility than to break up a breathtaking, pitch-perfect rendition of 'All By Myself' by taking covetous swigs from a bottle of Listerine?

-- FEST MAGAZINE, Scotland ★★★★

Mark Giordano’s MAD MAN

Developed and Directed by Peter Michael Marino

Inspired by the retro 60s cool of “Mad Men,” Mark Giordano’s “Mad Man,” presents the funniest midlife crisis ever, kicking off with swinging pop music and its star delivering a witty, Rat Pack-inspired rant while clutching a frosty martini at center stage.

In his opening, Giordano tells the audience most of his friends are of the “alcoholish” sort. He adores the liquid which quells the self loathing of being an adult in a culture that encourages perpetual adolescence. The hangover heightens the awareness of the loathing when the next day brings clarity. For as much as our narrator derides more juvenile aspects of our culture – Real Housewives franchise, anyone? – he also very much yearns to be part of the program where people settle down and live together in nice little nuclear families. Single at 40, Girodano feels deeply abnormal. In fact, he feels that his young nephew even suspects some buried awfulness lurking because he identifies superman’s fortress of solitude as being “like Uncle Mark’s apartment.”

Thus “clarity sucks!” and the rest of your time there you will be on the receiving end of clarity as Mark sees it. Whether you are a middle-aged dad strapping your baby son into a car whilst sporting a Che Guevara t-shirt or if you think 40 is the new 30, Mark is here to let you know how incredibly, willfully deluded you are. His topics veer from religion – he describes his family as “Cathol-ish,” to dating – dishing out some specialized dating etiquette aimed at both men and women -- to how we need to grow up as a culture because not everybody deserves a trophy just for showing up.

The show is broken up into four vignettes and each portion gets its own symbolic liquor. The live stuff is punctuated with little films of a hilarious puppet alter ego, sitting at a bar having a one-sided conversation with his regular bartender. The pacing is great, the show is very smooth and our narrator is as strong in his performance as his opinions. All of the show is stylized in that “Rat Pack” fashion. I find it fascinating that many people, including the performer of this show, seem to identify the early 1960’s culture as the last moment that anyone can remember when adults held sway – for better or for worse.

The last moment of the show leaves you with this comforting, clarifying thought -- no one knows what they are doing! Believe in yourself, because no one knows a goddamn thing, as Mark says.