Cowboy Mouth

Off-Broadway at The 13th Street Repertory 



Funny how you can go from the grand and luxurious Avery Fisher Hall one night to this tiny theatre located in an 1840 brownstone the next, and still be thoroughly entertained.   It’s very true that size does not matter.

 

Cowboy Mouth was written by Sam Shepard and Patti Smith, and details a day in the life of their torrid romance from a room in the Chelsea Hotel. The scantily clad, pistol slinging, dead crow loving Cavale is played by the sultry Susan Campanaro who has kidnapped Slim,  played by the dreamy, bad boy James A. Lee and wants to turn him in a rock n’ roll Jesus with a Cowboy mouth.   For approximately 80 minutes, you witness a struggle between heated passion to anger and rage. The characters slip in and out of fantasy, and from bed to chair.  This is an insane and sometimes darkly humorous tale.  As you might guess of life with Patti Smith & Sam Shepard, there was music.  Slim cranks on the electric guitar, and Cavale blows out some bluesy, jazzy a cappella numbers with great tone.   In the middle of all of this we have the fantasy lobsterman.  He’s not officially cast, but we do know him to also be Shane Howard, the director and co-producer.   It was a real icebreaker for the lobsterman show up in the middle of all this passion and madness and the audience roared with laughter.

 

Both actors seem to be perfectly cast in these roles. Mr. Lee has been off the circuit working behind the scenes of late, but Ms. Campanaro is no stranger to the stage.   She has a huge cult following of her Lavinia Draper act that she has been doing for years in New York City and Cherry Grove, Fire Island.   It’s too bad this show has such a short run, because I’m sure that Susan alone could fill this house for years with her following.

 

There are only a limited number of performances left through September 30th  so get your tickets now and see Alcohol, Sex and Rock n’ Roll exploding at the Rep.  www.13thstreetrep.org – thisbroadSway 9/18/2014