Metropolis sends up the past in irreverent 'History of America'

At the opening performance of the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre's “The Complete History of America (Abridged),” an elderly audience member approached me at intermission to express how offended he was by the show's irreverent humor — particularly its depiction of President Abraham Lincoln's assassination involving a moustache-twirling John Wilkes Booth and a balloon-headed Lincoln puppet.

His distaste, however, contrasted sharply with the positive response the show was getting from most other members of audience, who continually punctuated the performance with hearty bursts of laughter.

Now admittedly, “The Complete History of America (Abridged)” is often very juvenile. Phallic jokes, anachronistic pop culture references and groan-inducing word puns frequently pop up as significant events in U.S. history get speedily abridged and mercilessly rehashed.

But there's also a smart (if obviously politically left-leaning) approach to this historical condensing, sometimes calling out the audience's blind spots like in a segment on important American women in history, or cleverly blending together pop culture genres to look at recent times (like the film noir hard-boiled detective approach to 20th century American history).

At the Metropolis, performers Adam Kander, Mat Labotka and Michael Woods make for a very funny trio of quick-change performers under the capable direction of David Belew. So what if every now and then the performers' line readings miss a laugh or two. That's always a danger in performing other people's material, but it's clear that these funny fellows know what they're doing by winning consistent gales of laughter from the audience.

Unquestionably “The Complete History of America (Abridged)” might ruffle the feathers of a more staid and conservative audience who don't want jokesters jabbing at the sometimes contentious moments of their country's history. Or they just might not like getting squirted at with water rifles, like in the segment on trench warfare in World War I.

Either way, there are plenty of laughs to be had in “The Complete History of America (Abridged),” if the audience is willing to let down their “America can do no wrong” guard. And the comedy forces gathered together at the Metropolis definitely make good on their offering of a fun and irreverent time out in the theater.