REVIEW: Steve Burns has some lessons to offer, this time to adults
Photo: Steve Burns recently brought his solo show, Steve Burns Alive, to New York City, July 23-25. Photo courtesy of the artist / Provided by Emily Owens PR with permission.
NEW YORK — Steve Burns’ new one-person show, Steve Burns Alive, recently played a three-night engagement at the venerable theatrical institution La MaMa in Downtown Manhattan, and by all accounts, the shows were a success. Burns played to sold-out houses, and audiences responded with laughs for the many memories that resurfaced throughout the evening and some deep sympathy for the unexpected, unfortunate events that occurred when he gave up the big chair on Nick Jr.’s Blue’s Clues.
Ostensibly that’s why the crowds had showed up at this small theater on the Lower East Side. Many of the Millennials in the audience had grown up watching Burns as the host of Blue’s Clues, a massively successful animated show. He stayed with the series for several seasons and then eventually moved on with his life and career.
The sad part comes when one learns the behind-the-scenes stories of how the world (and the early days of internet consumption) upset Burns’ life while he was on the show and in the years following his departure. There were hurtful (and clearly false) rumors of his demise, that he had succumbed to addiction or taken his own life. The actor also talked about his clinical depression and how he built a career out of asking people how they were doing, while he himself was not doing so well.
Burns delivers these remembrances and lessons learned in a most unique manner in Steve Burns Alive. Without giving too much away, the actor and his director, Matthew Freeman, make the bold choice to recreate the feeling of watching Burns on television. There’s a big comfy chair, just like the one on Blue’s Clues, and Burns appears on a massive screen, ready to say hi and lean in for an extreme closeup. This distance is comforting for Burns, as he tells the audience during the monologue, but he also is willing to break some barriers and come out from behind the curtain. In these parts, he directly addresses the crowd from a simple microphone near the edge of the stage.
The actor has an uncanny ability to tell a story, grabbing at heartstrings without ever feeling pushy or inauthentic. He has an excellent grasp of vocabulary and somehow develops a cadence of talking that feels similar to his time on television. Much credit to Burns and Freeman, who both wrote the script, for structuring the piece less like a soup-to-nuts autobiography and more like a kaleidoscope of emotions and memories.
Some of the most heartfelt stories surround Burns’ retelling of what it felt like to have the world believe he was dead. That was the untrue conspiracy theory that proliferated on the internet, mostly because, as he saw it, humanity seems unable to accept that which seems pure and good.
But there are also stories of Burns visiting children enduring health problems, kids whose “Make-a-Wish” was to see the host of Blue’s Clues. These episodes in the one-hour show are tender, revealing and offer a glimpse into Burns as a person and not just a host who hung around with a blue dog.
Burns recently told Hollywood Soapbox that he’s dipping his toe in the theatrical well to see what the feedback might be. There’s definitely a hope to continue Steve Burns Alive in some form. This reviewer thinks it would be a logical choice for a commercial run at New World Stages in Midtown Manhattan. There are plenty of Burns fans out there, as evidenced by his enormous line at New York Comic Con a few years ago, and memories of Blue’s Clues run deep. This one could be a hit.
One hopes that Burns finds a way to bring this show back for a longer run because the lessons about overcoming obstacles, facing down hurtful rumors, picking oneself up from the bottom and treating people with kindness are worth telling to an adult crowd, especially an adult crowd who grew up learning similar lessons on Blue’s Clues.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Steve Burns Alive, co-written and starring Burns, recently played at La MaMa in New York City. Steve Freeman co-wrote and directed. Running time: 1 hour with no intermission. Click here for more information.
