Imagine William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" as a one-man show. Now imagine that one man performing the play in the voices of over 40 "The Simpsons" characters.
The result is Canadian actor Rick Miller's entertaining, but often cluttered, "MacHomer," which came to the Center for the Arts Mainstage Theater on Friday night.
The show is not a straightforward performance of "Macbeth." Rather, Miller picks and chooses specific lines from the play, while paraphrasing other parts in character.
Entering in a Shakespearean costume through an alcove set in front of an oversized television screen, Miller started off with limitless zeal and kept it going throughout the entire show.
A show like "MacHomer" relies heavily on the actor's ability to faithfully reproduce the famous voices of the "Simpsons" cast, and Miller's talent varies depending on which character he chooses.
Certain impressions, like those of Mr. Burns (as Duncan), Marge (as Lady MacHomer), Barney (as MacDuff) and Flanders (as Banquo) are outstanding. Other ones, like Grandpa Simpson (Murderer #2), Bart (as Fleance) and Capt. McCallister (as Hecate) barely resemble each character's actual voice.
Since Miller does not recite the complete lines of the play or strictly paraphrase each scene, the show becomes increasingly difficult to follow. After the first 10 minutes, only Shakespeare scholars probably knew exactly where Miller was at any given point.
Aside from the lead parts, Miller seems to have arbitrarily cast "Macbeth." After a while, it's as though Miller was imitating certain voices just for the sake of allowing another "Simpsons" cameo, with no relevance to the "Macbeth" storyline. This is the way Miller works in completely irrelevant, not to mention poorly done, impressions of O.J. Simpson and Sean Connery.
However, this method worked for Miller numerous times throughout the show. Despite not fitting into the plot, these peripheral characters received the biggest laughs from the audience, with Miller performing dead-on impressions of Professor Frink, Ralph Wiggum, Krusty the Klown and Otto the bus driver.
"I liked ('MacHomer') a lot," said Alyssa Faivre, a freshman biology major. "I like 'The Simpsons' and I like 'Macbeth' a lot, so it was a good combination. Except I think you have to be really familiar with 'Macbeth' to follow it."
Though she enjoyed the show, freshman exercise science major Krista Macy said all the different voices began to wear on her as the show went on.
"I thought it was a long time to listen to the 'Simpsons' voices, but (Miller) is very talented," said Macy.
The show's "intermission" consisted of Miller taking a minute-long break with a long drink from a bottle with a "Duff Beer" label on it. In fact, the intermission was nothing but a formality, as the entire performance lasted for only a little more than an hour.
The best parts of the show had absolutely nothing to do with "Macbeth." After Miller completed the Shakespeare portion of the show, he proceeded to perform a version of "We Are the World," using almost every "Simpsons" voice in his arsenal. While singing this piece, Miller ventured into the audience.
To close the show, Miller sang Queen's glam-rock classic "Bohemian Rhapsody," using "the 25 most annoying voices in the music industry."
Like the rest of the show, the quality of "Bohemian Rhapsody" was either amazing or terrible, depending on which voice Miller used. His impressions of Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Dennis DeYoung (of Styx) and Neil Diamond were hilarious. On the other hand, his impressions of Eminem, Brian Johnson of AC/DC and James Hetfield of Metallica seemed like they might have been funny once, at a drunken cast party somewhere, but they did not translate well at all to the stage.
Miller has set a high goal for himself, and perhaps it is inevitable that he will fall short here and there. Though not every impression is perfect, the amount of convincing impressions he uses is impressive. "MacHomer" is an interesting concept, but it could use some fine-tuning.
