Sunday, December 11, 2016

Review: Get Wild on Planet Wongo

By Kaila M. Stokes

First off, what a fun title! Wild Women of Planet Wongo lives up to their fun title indeed! This is a wacky adventure that is audience interactive with booze! Walking into the world of Wongo you are handed a strong wongo-tini beverage to lube up your sense of excitement. The theater, located at Parkside Lounge, is quite unique. It is in the back of a bar, but is spacious and open. Seats surround the edge of the stage in a theater in the round style, but mostly people stand and are moving around constantly. The show begins with two men in-route to deliver space chips, basically they are glorified space UPS. Their space ship crashes on none other than Planet Wongo. Planet Wongo is inhabited by sexy women who worship a goddess that specifically stipulates these women need to have sex with men!
If you’re super sensitive to the whole feminism movement, it might not be the show for you. But the music sure is catchy. All of the actors did a fantastic job with the songs and choreography, especially in such a small space. The audience is totally immersed in the show allowing pictures to be taken and light banter when the time calls for it. The real stand out character is the queen of Planet Wongo. Her voice was stellar and she commanded that stage and audience…like a queen! A program should have been handed out at the end so all of the talented actors could have been recognized.
The set consisted of stretched grey material across the walls and then five TV’s set up around the room. These TV’s showed the terrain of the planet and other plot important information. It was a creative use of the space and of the futuristic time period. The actors interactive with the TV’s and they also provided useful points for the audience as well.
Wild Women of Planet Wongo is an exciting show to see with friends, with drinks, and with a sense of humor! There is no serious plot or heavy demeanor here. Go, let your hair down, dance with a stranger, drink an unknown concoction, and enjoy the movement that is … immersive theater.