Near the beginning of Curtains, Jessica Cranshaw, the untalented and unpleasant star of Robbin' Hood — a musical within the musical — collapses during a rehearsal, clearly the victim of foul play. A young cop is called in to solve the murder, and the mystery unfolds in a manner familiar to all lovers of Agatha Christie or Inspector Poirot — which is fitting, since the action is set in 1959. Everyone is instructed to stay on site as Lieutenant Frank Cioffi considers the stories and backgrounds of one suspect after another. Almost all of the characters have a motive of some kind, and everybody hated Cranshaw. But there's a bit of a problem. Cioffi is a competent cop, but he's also an amateur actor crazy in love with musicals. Sometimes, as the action unfolds with lots of singing, dancing and thunkingly silly jokes, it's hard to figure out whether he's motivated more by a desire to solve the crime or to fix the many shortcomings of Robbin' Hood — which would be on its way to Broadway had it not been savaged by the local Boston critic.

And there's no question at all about his growing interest in pretty ingenue Niki, who, he decides, couldn't possibly be guilty, despite the fact that her fingerprints turn up in places where they shouldn't and she races on stage at one point brandishing a gun.Curtains was written by Peter Stone; the songs come courtesy of John Kander and Fred Ebb, the formidable team responsible for Cabaret, Chicago and Kiss of the Spiderwoman. The murder mystery provides a thin but entertaining plot line, but at its heart the show is a tribute to musical theater — and love for the form provides the energy that fuels the best moments.Ebb died before this work was completed, and two songwriters, Aaron and Georgia, play a prominent role in the action. Georgia gets tapped to take over Cranshaw's leading role — naturally she turns out to have true star quality — and she also seems to fall for the leading man, Bobby. This leaves poor Aaron composing all alone. "I Miss the Music" — his explanation to a fascinated Cioffi of how a song comes together and just how essential it is to have a musical partner — is one of the prettiest pieces in the show, as is another wistful tune, "Thinking of Him."

There's also a fantastic piece of legerdemain in which composers Kander and Ebb essentially take a musical number apart — actually showing its disparate and ill-fitting parts — and then have Cioffi bring everything together in a segment brimming with unexpected fun and energy. Used Furniture For Sale In Puerto RicoThe songs, skillfully choreographed by Kitty Skillman Hilsabeck, pay sly tribute to all kinds of musical comedy styles and conventions, with allusions to Seven Brides for Seven Brothers and Aaron Copland's Rodeo. Best Flooring For Powder RoomBest of all, there's a gorgeous Rogers and Astaire-style duet, "A Tough Act to Follow," which is equally gorgeously sung and danced by the lovely and graceful Erica Sweany as Niki and Jim Poulos's light-footed Cioffi. Light Bulb Carrying Case

(Cioffi, incidentally, is the role that made a musical comedy star of the inimitable David Hyde Pierce when Curtains hit Broadway in 2007.) This duet provides such pure and dizzy pleasure that you want it to go on and on and on.Still, this is a lesser-known musical for a reason. Some of the songs, such as "The Woman's Dead" and "What Kind of Man," are amusing; "Show People" is pretty nifty, but also an unhappy reminder of the far better "There's No Business Like Show Business." And some flat-footed songs either get repeated or seem to go on forever in the first place. The dialogue is sort of deliberately dumb-funny — this is, after all, a sendup full of '50s-style puns and wisecracks — but sometimes the dumb overwhelms the funny, as when a character says of her murdered husband, "That's the first time my husband was ever accused of being hung."But designer Brian Mallgrave's set is witty and bright, as are Clare Henkel's costumes. The cast is very strong — good dancers, fine voices — with standout performances from Poulos, Sweany, Lauren Shealy as Georgia and Jeffrey Roark as Aaron.

Director Gavin Mayer has minimized the problems, maximized the triumphs, and staged Curtains with terrific elan. In Case You Missed It The Ten Best Books Set in Colorado The Ten Best Geek Events in Denver in July Boulder’s Chautauqua Starts Fourth Decade of Silent Film Summers Performance Art Week Kicks Off at Emmanuel Gallery Tonight Update: Open Casting Call for Robert Redford and Jane Fonda's... Ten Things to Do in Denver for $10 or Less (Eight Free),... The Ten Best Comedy Events in Denver in September Three Things to Do for Free in Denver, September 6-8 In Watchmen, Rorschach is reminded by The Comedian of a joke he heard once: “Heard joke once: Man goes to doctor. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain. Doctor says, "Treatment is simple. Great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go and see him. That should pick you up." Man bursts into tears.

Was this an actual joke outside of Watchmen? And if it was, was it ever told in a manner that deserved laughter and a roll on snare drums? The roots of this joke are very old, and it has been attached to a variety of clowns since its inception. That's a famous story, sometimes told as a joke, often related asIt's really your archetypal "sad clown" story, and indeed exactly the same tale has been told of other clowns, most notably the Swiss clown Grock (Charles Wettach, 1880-1959). Here is one version that predates Watchmen, told of the comedian Joseph Grimaldi: It is said of Grimaldi that he felt his work so keenly that as soon as his performance was over, he retired to a corner and wept profusely. Here was a man of tender heart and generous impulses. There is a story about him which has been handed down by many generations of clowns. goes on to say that once Grimaldi became very ill and despondent. went to consult a great London specialist.

The great man looked him over "Go to see Grimaldi, and laugh yourself well." The clown looked at him sadly and replied: Another version was told of the clown Grock: A story you may or may not have heard relates how, in the mid 1930s or thereabouts, a prematurely old-looking man asked his chauffeur to drive him to the consulting rooms of Charles Prelot, Academician, doyen of French psychologists and you name it, who'd set up his trading pad in a small palace behind the Quai d'Orsay. After half-an-hour of the usual rigmarole, it emerged that the worried patient was very rich, acutely depressed, and given to bouts with bottles of green stuff that smelt of aniseed balls. He remained somewhat vague about where his The face of the great savant lit up. He saw both the problem and the remedy before you could say two thousand francs. "What you need," he said, "is a change. Go out and enjoy yourself. Spend a little money.

Buy a ticket to the Olympia. Laugh with Grock for he is, you must admit, the greatest clown in France, if not the whole world. The patient shook his head. "Because," said the man sighing deeply, "I am Grock." An old version can be found in the poem "Reir Llorando" or "Laugh Crying," by Juan de Dios Peza. Una vez, ante un médico famoso, llegóse un hombre de mirar sombrío: «Sufro le dijo, un mal tan espantoso como esta palidez del rostro Once, before a famous doctor, there arrived a man of somber demeanor. "I suffer, I tell you, an evil as frightening as the pallor of my face." The doctor of course suggests that he go see the great clown Garrick: "all who see him die of laughter," and "he has an astonishing artistic gift." And the man replies: ¿Y a mí, me hará reír? ¡Ah!, sí, os lo juro, él sí y nadie más quemas... ¿qué os inquieta? Así dijo el enfermo no me curo; And me, he will make me laugh? "Ah, yes, I swear to to you, he will, and no one other than he, but...what bothers you?"

So I said to the doctor, he will not cure me: I am Garrick! Since that poem can be found here, the joke was already at least 100 years old when Alan Moore used it. There's even a version that references a nonspecific "clown" from three years before Watchmen was published. The disturbed man blurted out, "But Doctor, I am the clown!" Each of us, even the clown, is subject to periods of depression and blues. This also makes it clear that, even before Watchmen, the context was generally less humorous and more philosophic. So no snare drums. It is worth noting that the word Pagliacci translates to "clowns," and thus may stand in for a generic clown. It also is very likely a reference (direct or indirect) to the opera Pagliacci. In particular, the subject matter of Smokey Robinson and the Miracles' "The Tears of a Clown" is quite apropos and might have served as an inspiration: Just like Pagliacci did I try to keep my sadness hid Smiling in the public eye

But in my lonely room I cry This is mirrored in the original opera. Canio plays the role of Pagliaccio, or "Clown," a clown in a circus. He has discovered his wife is with another man, and is "wracked with grief." While I am racked with grief, not knowing what I say or what I do!I must...ah, force myself to do it!You are not a man! Put on the costume, the powder and the paint: the people pay and want to laugh. And if Harlequin steals your Columbine, laugh, Pagliaccio, and all will applaud you! Change all your tears and anguish into clowning: and into a grimace your sobbing and your pain... Laugh, Pagliaccio, at your shattered love! Laugh at the sorrow that has rent your heart! (Grief-stricken, he goes out through the curtain.) From this, Pagliaccio (or the similar Pagliacci) has become something of a cultural stand-in for the sad clown, the performer who weeps on the inside while making others laugh. As such, his is an obvious name to associate with the Grimaldi "joke."

It's been told about George Fox, "the American Grimaldi"— who sadly ended his days in an asylum, having been slowly poisoned over the years by the high levels of lead in his greasepaint. One such story was told of George L. Fox, one of the great mimes andIt was said that he went to a doctor to try to rid himself of a persistent case of depression. After an examination which disclosed nothing organically wrong, the doctor advised his patient to go and laugh at George Fox. The patient sadly answered, "I am GeorgeRoll on snare drum. Curtains." is layered with irony, because the story here is not actually a joke, but a parable. Twisting a well-known joke into a parable that tells the reader more about the character of The Comedian is just one example of why Watchmen is so incredibly well written. You see, the sad clown stories retold by Obie are jokes, because like all good jokes they contain a logical mixup and end on a strong punchline. Doctor tells a man to see a clown—man is a clown.

These jokes, due in large part to how they are written, would get a laugh out of people in the real world—and you can tell they are all jokes because so long as you do not alter the mechanism/fundamentals of the joke, you can change much of the content and still end up with a funny punchline. A lonely man sits on a bench by a river, looking wistfully out at the "Whats wrong with you?" says another man passing by. find love, no matter how hard I try." says the man. scoffs the passer-by, as if by reflex. "Here, take these 2 gold coins and spend the night at the brothel down the road—that'll sort you"No good..." says the man on the bench. " that brothel for 14 years." Same goes for a woman who constantly worries about her future, who is also a fortune teller, or whatever mental condition/service combo you can think of. These are all at their heart the same joke. But none of those would fit as a drop-in replacement for the story in The Watchmen because here there is a subtle difference.

Pagliacci is not just sad - he is apathetic to life itself: Man goes to doctor. Says life seems harsh andSays he feels all alone in a threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain. clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. This is a story of a man who sees life for what it is—harsh and cruel—which is emphasized by that action in the panels. The doctor tells him to go and see a clown, because although that provides no solution to his underlying condition, it will provide a distraction from harshness/cruelty of reality. But this idea is of no use to Pagliacci, because he cannot be distracted like the others by humour. He is the distraction. And this all ties in to The Comedian's character, which is what Rorschach is trying to tell us with this story. He fights for justice because he couldn't be distracted like everyone else. That is his reason for being a superhero. If you now read the first two panels in light of the joke, it should be a lot clearer what Rorschach is trying to say, and why this is not a mere joke.