Genre: Sketch Comedy
Written by: Leila Gazale, Jana Zenadeen
Directed by: Maha Chehlaoui
Performed by: Leila Gazale, Jana Zenadeen, Sami Mitwasi,
Lena Rizkallah, Demond Robertson, Afaf Shawwa, Ryan Shrime, Tamar
Vezirian
Running time: 75 minutes
Web site: pascaleandchantal.com
Foreign television programming often exudes an envy of American
TV, lapping up insipid nonsense from U.S. airwaves and reproducing
it even more inanely overseas. Live! With Pascale & Chantal,
Beirut's fictional number-one talk show, stars a lavender power-suited
Baba Wawa-esque broadcast journalist and her sequin-clad, former-Miss
Lebanon co-host. Together, with Daytime Emmy-winning verve, they
earnestly tackle the issues of the day (spousal communication, plastic
surgery) and chat with celebs like the Egyptian motion picture industry's
"it girl" actress. Originally developed for the New York
Arab-American Comedy Festival, Pascale & Chantal makes
hay of the differencesand the similaritiesbetween the
East-West cultural Venn diagram. Stars Leila Gazale and Jana Zenadeen
are very funny and at times hysterical. Playing off each other like
lifelong cohorts, they revel in their characters' narcissistic showboating,
pseudo-intellectual interviews and self-important delusions of grandeur.
This comedy of Western media filtered through the Arab eye is almost
perfectly executed, hilarious, relevant, andhyperbolic as
it soundsculturally consequential.Will Doig
Where: Greenwich Street Theater
When: Tue, Aug 17 at 10:15 p.m.; Fri, Aug 20 at 7:45
p.m.; Mon, Aug 23 at 4:30 p.m.; Wed, Aug 25 at 7:45 p.m.; Sat, Aug
28 at 1:45 p.m.and 11:15 p.m.
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