The Godfadda Workout March 3, 2011

From LA to Off-Broadway, from the HBO Comedy Festival to a command performance at Las Vegas' famed Golden Nugget Hotel, Seth Isler's 'The Godfadda Workout,' is a bona-fide hit. Imagine one very obsessed man stepping through the proverbial looking glass of life and emerging inside Francis Ford Coppola's mob masterpiece where his every word and action sub-reference his favorite movie. To regain his (questionable) sanity he forms a pack with the (recurring) voice of Don Corleone who challenges the obsessed man to single handedly act out all the major scenes from the The Godfather (though it must be to the Don's satisfaction) thus earning his restoration to his so-called normal life. But things don't always go according to plan. The onstage crew (Fedora and suspender clad, shadowy figures) act as agents of the Don in setting the stage and perhaps sabotaging the man's earnest efforts. He vaults, handsprings and leaps from character to character to create the uncanny illusion of the film's characters engaged in each scene. The intensity of Coppola's great film is called to mind in a hilariously loving tribute. Isler magically portrays 37 characters in this athletic tour-de-force, reminding audiences of the classic film's actors (Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Robert Duvall, James Caan, Diane Keaton and many others) straight out of their iconic Godfather scenes. 'The Godfadda Workout' creates the fantastic illusion that you too have stepped inside the mafia cult classic.