ATTACK OF THE KILLER B’S
That success speaks volumes about Abley’s skills as a director, or at least about his skills as a builder of tight ensembles of talented comic actors capable of re-creating the look and feel of this lead-footed film–without this kind of cast Reefer Madness would be nothing. Abley’s so-called adaptation, after all, is little more than a transcription of the movie, which I’m sure is far less interesting on the page than on the stage. His most recent work, the considerably richer and more ambitious Attack of the Killer B’s, is similarly dependent on its witty, inventive cast.
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Naturally each actor has specialties. Jim Blanchette, so ill-used in last autumn’s Trask & Fenn (he provided the distracting, unnecessary, and unfunny comic relief), gets to parade his skills as a man of a thousand comic expressions. Kristen Swanson gets to play both the cool, sophisticated Janet Leigh checking into the Bates Motel and, in a Jailhouse Rock homage, a go-go girl.
