STAGE REVIEW : ‘Columbus’ Runs Aground

You think Columbus is in trouble? Try Mondo Fax (who in real life is a Glendale attorney, presumably under his real name). Fax swishes through the high seas on his “living ship,” as slides and hot musical licks animate the late night, tabloid theater disaster “Christopher Columbus: The Live Album” at the Tamarind Theatre.

We caught the preview before opening night and overlooked the mechanical miscues and all the other gaffes. That’s petty stuff. The point is that nothing could improve this show short of a smoke bomb. Fax and his consort, Sherry Glaser, who plays the women on Columbus’ loveboat, prance around like shipboard entertainment directors on a cruise to hell.

Actually, Fax is a strong musician. When he and Glaser knock out their vocals, they’re on solid ground. The rest is grueling, unrelenting, mindless corn so paralyzing it makes you numb. Fax has no sense of economy or structure.

A few may find him irresistibly crazy, like a character on the old “Gong Show.” In truth, he acts like a performer suffering a nervous breakdown.