Pro Wrestling Brilliantly Fuses With Small Stage Drama

Levin Valayil, Adrian Feliciano. Photo by Michael Brosilow.

Larger-than-life drama explodes across the small stage this fall as Next Act opens its season with The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity. The heartbreakingly relatable Adrian Feliciano is phenomenally engaging as a professional wrestler who has always been paid to lose. His biggest foe just might be the title character: a pro wrestling champion with far greater charisma and far less talent who is played by DiMonte Henning. David Cecsarini makes a similarly impressive appearance as the head of the wrestling organization...a gruff guy of massive authority in and out of the ring. He and the powerfully charismatic Henning make for sharply slick antagonists.


The Net Act production is driven by the engine of love for professional wrestling .Director Michael Cotey’s passion for the amplified drama of the sports entertainment industry crams the ridiculous immensity of pro-wrestling into one of the most intimate stages in town. The restult is positively overwhelming. (Complementary ear plugs are available from the ushers on the way in to the theatre.) Cotey has orchestrated a really impressive production. Scenic Designer Em Allen’s set dominates the stage with the look and feel of a pro wrestling ring. Everything looks SO stylish from the company logo to the precise placement of the massive video projections, the slickly-produced interstitials and everything else. It really is a beautifully over-the-top theatrical experience in every way iimaginable. Lighting Designer Maaz Ahmed manages both powerfully devastating light and subtle nuances.


Most people pay good money to see pro wrestling from a great distance. Fans of the strangely popular genre of...um...pop theatre...(?) will be happy to know that local wrestling legend Frankie DeFalco acted as fight coordinator for the show and yes: there ARE a few very definite moments of action that are faithfully adapted from the pro wrestling ring to the ring on the stage. And it all feels SO true to the atmosphere of an actual pro wrestling match from the crash of a body hitting the mat to the swing of a folding chair to the ropes and the lights and the video projections that are as massive and unavoidable as some long-forgotten deity.


Somewhere in the midst of all the razzle-dazzle of amplified athleticism beats the heart of a devastating drama. Feliciano speaks with deep passion and love in the role of a guy named “Mace” who is pushed through the motions of circumstances beyond his control...always just out of range of being able to take over his own destiny. Feliciano is positively brilliant as a man who is truly in love with a job that he sometimes hates. Thee’s a strong statement being made in Kristoffer Díaz’ script regarding the American Dream, the cultural identity of the U.S., the nature or money, power and racism and the whole twisted history of the North American continent...but what audiences are most likely to love about the show is its deep wells of passion and affection for that strangely persistent pop cultural powerhouse that IS pro wrestling.


Next Act Theatre’s production of The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity runs through October 6th a the Next Act Theatre on 255 S. Water St.