Sol Theatre: Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll (3 reviews)

Sol Theatre Project is running the Eric Bogosian drama Sex, Drugs, Rock & Roll through March 7th.

Christine Dolen weighs in with her review for the Miami Herald:

Having previously staged Bogosian's solo Drinking in America with multiple actors, (Robert) Hooker takes that approach again with Sex, Drugs -- this time, with mixed results.

...Hooker is giving three actors the chance to do mini solo shows rather than having one powerhouse performer carry the evening.

This decision doesn't enhance or further illuminate the material. It merely points up the disparities among the performances: the charged-up Bruno's knack for finding both the humor and callousness in the men he plays, Gibbons' ease (at times hampered by near-inaudibility) with his little group of aging hipsters, Holmes' trio of rambling nuts.

Bill Hirschman reviewed it for the Sun-Sentinel. And he enjoyed the show at the sometimes-inconsistent theatre:

Your living room is larger than their stage. They have little money. Occasionally, they get mired in pretentious messes. But at least once a year, the folks at Sol Theatre Project produce a work of thought-provoking art that simply should not be missed by people who love great theater.

Director Robert Hooker has a preternatural feel for pacing these curdling slices of life and digging into the marrow of the mildewed edges of modern society. He deftly channels Bogosian's unending torrent of words flowing from each character like a flash flood.

Jeff Holmes is shattering... Todd Bruno disappears inside a dim slacker who relates the most drug-addled bachelor party of all time... and somebody explain why theaters don't slug it out to hire Jim Gibbons 12 months a year?

Brandon K. Thorp reviewed for the Broward-Palm Beach New Times.

...the title is the best single-phrase description of Sol's contribution to South Florida high culture. Sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll are three things that SoFla theater desperately needs more of and that most theaters simply cannot credibly deliver. But they come naturally to Sol.

It was written by Eric Bogosian, a writer with a real gift for dialect and no sense of when to shut up. He used to perform SDR&R as a one-man show, but here it's filled out with three stalwart of the Sol — Jeff Holmes, Jim Gibbons, and Todd Bruno — who don't do anything to curb Bogosian's excesses.

Bogosian might bludgeon you with a hammer; Homes, Gibbons, and Bruno will drop an Acme anvil on your head.

Sadly, this is just about the Sol Theatre Project's last venture; Robert Hooker is looking to sell the theatre because he's pursuing a tenured teaching position out of state.