Just Playing Me, Cornservatory. Billed as a parody of one-woman shows, this self-indulgent, tedious piece displays none of Corn Productions’ usual campy glee or biting satire. Instead we get Jereme Cullens (P.J. Jenkinson), a former matricidal child star turned B-movie bombshell, punk princess, and successful Christian pop singer. Surrounded by four flamingly gay dancers (with their pouts and poses, Patrick Brooks, Kyle-Jason Schwartz, Joe Urso, and Michael Brandon are the show’s highlight), Jereme tells us the story of her awful life in banal songs. (Robert Bouwman and Todd Schaner’s lyrics include “I sat inside my playpen / And I watched the world go by / No one there to comfort me / When I started to cry.”) The uncredited script also employs clunky monologues (“[Mother] pushed and she pushed, and I’m not talking about on the delivery table”) and long, melodramatic lists of words: “Adoration. Bliss. Rock bottom. Hopeless. Legendary. Tragedy. Pain.”
