SOUND OF THE TRAIN–VARIATIONS ON A GENERATION
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Nobody likes to be called names, especially a name that’s both ambiguous and sinister. When the media started referring to people in their 20s as “Generation X,” naturally they became defensive. I myself don’t take kindly to a label that implies aimlessness, dissolution, and overdoses of MTV. And Sound of the Train–Variations on a Generation, a new comedy revue, is a direct reaction to such pigeonholing. In his director’s note, Todd Stashwick says that the group devised this collection of songs and sketches to portray the individuality of people in their 20s, who cannot be so easily defined. “We can either feel we have no identity,” he writes, “or choose not to be labeled and define ourselves individually.”
Sadly, however, this show is as unfocused and general as the epithet that prompted it. Instead of offering glimpses into the human beings behind the stereotype, this uneven, often confusing mishmash of material suffers from all the ills implied by the term it’s battling.
