Joe Louis - very quick play review

Joe Louis An American Romance is on at the St. Michel Baths, an old swimming pool near The Main and Maguire. It's a stylish play done in a boxing ring in the middle of the old pool. 

   Chairs are placed on each side just like a boxing ring. Often such seating configurations results in you staring at the person sitting in the seats across the stage rather than the play. But in this case it was dim enough so you couldn't really see the audience member opposite. In my case last night there was a smokin' hot woman directly across in a memorable grey wool dress so I wasn't complaining.    The play is an Infinitheatre production, which means chuckling veteran of the failed lefty revolution Guy Sprung is in charge. The playwright is a local dude David Sherman. His script focuses in on an aging Joe Louis discussing tax woes with an IRS tax collector who is threatening to toss him in jail for failure to pay his bills. She compares her woes as a woman to his woes as a black man. That part didn't interest me too much. 

   There's a multimedia element with screens showing old newsreels of his bouts. Along with those two characters, there's a young Joe Louis played by an extremely fit young man who actually does one-handed pushups on stage. There's Jack Johnson with a small role by a highly-charismatic actor and the trainer as well, played by the ever-reliable Tristan D. Lala. All performances are strong and the venue is intimate enough to bring all the action to life. I'd highly recommend this play which is on for eleven more days. The one thing I disliked is that the dialogue can be a bit trite at times especially when it insists on hitting all of those aphorisms associated with Joe Louis, including the "you always have a plan until you get hit," which is a great saying but sorta comes off as gratuitous in the context of this play. Lots of fun tho, so go see if it you can.