It isn't a conventional holiday show, but What's The Point?! at the Laurie Beechman Theatre certainly has good enough spirits for about just any holiday that comes along.

The numbers are a dozen-plus fresh, musical skits sharing a jaundiced view of our twenty-first century world. With the help of Patrick Garrigan and Eadie Scott, creator/performer/lyricist Hector Coris (pictured) takes on and battles to a draw if not abject submission, such varied topics as cellphones, other parents' ugly babies, frustrating relationships (“How Can I Miss You, If You Won't Go Away?), and the American Idol show. Some will evoke smiles, others laughter and a few, uncontrolled guffaws.

The players are charmingly versatile, shifting rapidly from attendants at a zoo (where all their animals are gay), to the romantically irresistible and Zorro-costumed “Dirty Sanchez,” to the threesome's “Little Mermaid” finale.

Composer Alan Cancelino is at the piano, Choreographer Susan Haefner has provided attractive footwork. Joey Pier was the hand on lights, and Collette Black directed.

What's The Point?! may not quite match Julius Monk's ‘fifties and 'sixties presentations at Upstairs at the Downstairs, where he nurtured such talents as Dody Goodman, Sylvia Syms, Tammy Grimes, Alice Ghostley, and Jonathan Winters, but old-timers will reflect with satisfaction on the pleasure of once again finding a similarly enjoyable and lighthearted topical revue. Newer cabaret-goers will wish there was more of it around.

Peter Leavy
Cabaret Scenes
November 14, 2008
www.cabaretscenes.org