‘Tales From the Tunnel’ sound familiar

Subway stories involve gross encounters of the third rail kind

BY MICHAEL SOMMERS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

OFF BROADWAY REVIEW

A series of seriocomic anecdotes and vignettes regarding people's experiences on the New York City subways, "Tales From the Tunnel" travels an extremely familiar track.

Expect stories and skits detailing panhandlers, homeless people, freaks, fare-beaters, thugs, scam artists, rats (real ones) and everyday passengers like you and me dealing with them. Brief accounts of bad behavior and gross encounters of the third rail kind dominate this dingy, downbeat collage, which of course features a requisite 9/11 episode.

Said to be a success at last year's New York International Fringe Festival, "Tales From the Tunnel" opened Sunday in the (fittingly) underground space at the 45 Bleecker Street Theatre. Whatever it was then, the production here offers a tedious 90-minute ride to nowhere new.

Co-written by Troy Diana and James Valletti, the dull, unsurprising material is scarcely enhanced by its six performers who usually lend crude accents and obvious emotions to the multi-ethnic group of characters they try to portray.

Wilson Jermaine Heredia, who created the role of Angel in the original "Rent," is the best-known among them, but makes little impact. The most believable impressions are delivered by Vayu O'Donnell, whose quiet yet intense monologue as a burnt-out guy surviving in the tunnels beneath Grand Central terminal represents the show's only deeply-felt sequence.

Flatly staged by the authors with a dozen folding chairs and a bad sense of timing, "Tales From the Tunnel" registers not so much as slices of real-life drama than a showcase night for an Acting 101 class.

"Tales From the Tunnel" continues through Sept. 5 at 45 Bleecker Street Theatre, 45 Bleecker St. (at Lafayette), New York. Call (212) 239-6200 or visit www.talesfromthetunnel.com.