BECKY AND NOELLE: INVESTIGATING THE BUCKET
nytheatre.com review by Jayne Napier
August 15, 2003
Becky and Noelle: Investigating the Bucket starts off slow and
then picks up the pace with a wacky song about the home states these two
women hail from. It’s the first of many songs you’ll wish you could hear
more of. I was personally hoping for a few more verses of "Dickwad" and
the "MRI Rap." Noelle Romano has a physical presence that just makes you
want to laugh. Becky Poole has a quirky voice and commitment to the
absurd that is hilariously charming. These two women are very different
but play off each other beautifully in what results in a fun, bizarre,
musical comedy hour. Their strength lies in their ability to comment on
comedy while also providing enough laugh-out-loud moments to keep you
satisfied.The show only provides a glimpse of who Becky and Noelle are and what their points of view are. I wanted to get to know them better and you will too. I get the sense that there is an inside joke with Becky and Noelle, and I wish they had set the context of that joke up better so that the audience could have been more a part of it. However they’re having such a good time entertaining that they’re not really concerned about narrative or preaching or making sure the audience understands their brand of humor, which includes a love of irony, word play, sexuality and, most of all, music. They’re not derivative AT ALL but if you need a point of reference think Tenacious D meets Lili Taylor’s character in Mystic Pizza and then add a tiny dose of the Indigo Girls to the mix. Confused? So was I, but I had a good time.
