Lilli Pickens, Samantha Kammerman, and Bill Cahill in Bat Boy: The MusicalA musical based on the Weekly World News' tabloid-famous Bat Boy screams "camp." Augustana College's production of Bat Boy: The Musical, however, is not campy enough, as a couple of the leading actors played their parts too seriously or sincerely during Friday's performance, softening the effect of this musical's craziness.

James Alt and Pat Flaherty in King LearThere may be some of you who hear the title King Lear and, knowing only of the play's reputation as the mack daddy of all Shakespeare tragedies, immediately presume that any evening production of the piece will last well into the next morning. Allow me, then, to quell your fears: Saturday's Genesius Guild staging of the Bard's opus began promptly at eight o'clock, and after the night's presentation had concluded, I was back in my car by 10:55.

Samantha Bestvina and Neil Friberg (foreground) and Robin Quinn (background) in MetamorphosesSitting down, preparing for the start of Augustana College's Friday-night performance of Metamorphoses, I marveled at the pool that took up a majority of the stage space, but worried that it would be a gimmicky, annoying distracting from the show - a series of vignettes based on Ovid's Greek myths.

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