NOT A DETAILED BIO,
BUT MARCEL COLE IS THE REEL THING
Smile: The Story of Charlie Chaplin is wildly successful for many reasons, only not for the reasons it would succeed with me. As a major film geek, I confess to being a certified PITAP (“Pain In The Ass Purist”). For me, the show was “Chaplin-lite,” more like a magic lantern slide projection bio, including info on an impoverished youth in England and Chaplin’s stance against fascism. But for the audience at the Broadwater Main Stage, Marcel Cole was serving up Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Champagne. And they were rightfully lapping it up.
Cole wraps his show in this Reader’s Digest history of Chaplin that is both accurate and exceedingly well-articulated in its presentation, with skillful employment of video and sound design. There are reenactments of Charlie in The Gold Rush and The Great Dictator, and viewers will likely be shocked when they here why Chaplin was effectively booted from the U.S. during the communist scare. Cole is an excellent dancer and mime, capturing the persona of Chaplin quite nicely, but where this show’s strength really lies is in his clowning interaction with the audience, members of whom he drafts to fill the roles of those from Chaplin’s cinematic ensemble and his life (an adorable young lad was assigned the role of Chaplin’s older brother Sydney, not to be confused with Chaplin’s son Sydney, who played opposite Barbra Streisand on Broadway in Funny Girl).
Cole is certainly adept at this particular style of audience participation, which is rampant at this Fringe this year. So, if you’re intent on seeing a detailed biography of Charlie Chaplin, that’s not Cole’s intent. However, if you’re looking for a fun, laugh-filled, nostalgic show — made tender by the inclusion of the wistful theme from Modern Times — just walk into Smile and you won’t be disappointed.
Smile: The Story of Charlie Chaplin
The Broadwater (Main Stage), 1076 Lillian Way
part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival
60 minutes; ends on June 19, 2025
for tickets, visit Smile
