Hey, hey fellow Mutineers! I'm going on SAT @ 8p.m. so maybe I'll see some of you there!

I never expected the final musical . . . nor was I able to stop laughing:)

I am by no means a prude and love off and off-off broadway shows, but was disappointed with the production. I was really looking forward to it. But I found it to be really immature - parts of it were obscene and shocking but without artistic value. I've heard that it was better in years past. I appreciate the attempt at originality but just wish it had been wittier.

I am going tomorrow! Which is today in like two minutes.

I hope it's obscene and shocking. I mean, really. I've been for a couple of years now and it never gets old.

as someone who sees plays very frequently (three shows this week, including parts of the excellent stoppard trilogy at lincoln center), i thought "7-11" was a very amateurish show with limp writing and dull performances. the piece within it that was worth seeing was definitely "cafe ceilao", but as the half dozen friends i saw the show with remarked, that piece may have only seemed especially good because the other pieces were really bad (and by really bad, i mean one friend was thinking of asking for his money back). two other pieces had interesting concepts (the one juxtaposing a murder in the present and the past and "bachelor moon"), but both were uneven in execution.

no actor was outstanding. most were decent, though -- except the east asian male actor who was truly bad. most of the narratives were predictable (especially the piece about superheroes), and most of the dialogue in the pieces was forgettable. i've seen "7-11" in years past, and they have been better than this year's group.

one piece of advice: if you see "7-11", come late and leave early, since the two worst pieces are the first and last ones.

A review with an eye for detail-- thanks for the threadcount, cic :)

Several other people who went had comments. Also check out Loins of Punjab Presents this weekend.

OK I've convinced a whole group of people to go with me tomorrow and we got the tix last week and I'm a little scared now. I've gone every year and it has been good so I'm banking on that and hope it isn't as bad as everyone is making it out to be :-(

come late and leave early, since the two worst pieces are the first and last ones.

I thought the first one began with a bang. Pretty amusing, though the ending was a bit limp. The last one, in a word, is horrible. But I think Meetu Chilana might be a breakout star someday.

BrooklynBrown, much respect to your theatrical proclivities, but it seems a bit unfair to compare this (a scrappy young group of hardly-famous actors/screenwriters/etc making their own opportunities) to anything onstage at the (established, lauded, well-funded) Lincoln Center, much less Tom Stoppard.

Would you compare the new guy mixing agar in the lab to this year's Nobel winning scientist? Come on. That's just not quite fair. Some of the topics were incredibly juvenile, but that doesn't necessarily mean they were done amatuerishly. I think the audience for this just skews young.

I had fun at the show. However, I did feel that the quality of the acting and writing was not as high as it has been in past editions of "7-11". This is my third year in a row seeing it (I thought it was fantastic in 2005, decent this year, and somewhere in between last year). My favorite play was the one where the Chinese girl meets the tour group who tells her she is about to die. That was a very well written play. I also enjoyed the Debargo Sanyal play about the brainfreeze slurpee because it was just plain fun (and as CICATRIX pointed out, it had the best/funniest line of the night!), but would have been more fun if the talented Debargo Sanyal himself was back as a cast member this year (as he was in 2005). This year's cast was decent. I quite enjoy Andrew Guilarte (now in his 4th year of "7-11", according to his bio in the program). I think Meetu Chilana has a pleasant singing voice, but not very pleasant acting skills. The rest of the cast fell somewhere in the middle.

BrooklynBrown, much respect to your theatrical proclivities, but it seems a bit unfair to compare this (a scrappy young group of hardly-famous actors/screenwriters/etc making their own opportunities) to anything onstage at the (established, lauded, well-funded) Lincoln Center, much less Tom Stoppard.

cicatrix

to clarify, i know some of the "7-11" writers and quite a few of the actors who have been in previous "7-11" shows. I know what they're capable of, despite being "a scrappy young group of hardly-famous actors/screenwriters/etc making their own opportunities". knowing them and having seen other works that they've written/acted in doesn't alter my opinion that this year's show is just really bad, especially in light of previous "7-11" shows, where the writing was more memorable, had more to do with a convenience store and was more political. reviewers on manish's site (from his link above) seem to concur that this is a bad year for the show, though i tend to be harsher about this year's quality.

as for comparing the nyc desi theater to stoppard, that's a no-brainer that i blogged about a few months ago.

it seems a bit unfair to compare this (a scrappy young group of hardly-famous actors/screenwriters/etc making their own opportunities) to anything onstage at the (established, lauded, well-funded) Lincoln Center, much less Tom Stoppard.

I agree on staging but totally disagree w.r.t. writing quality. How do you think Stoppard got started? Sitting in a room writing an excellent script doesn't cost much except sweat and talent.

Oi! Don't make me out to be the defender of all fabulous theatrical upstart endeavors ;)

Perhaps my review isn't as harsh as it could have been, but I decided to judge based on its own merits, instead of what I wished it might have been. The writing was inconsistent, but had some great lines and/or intriguing ideas. Perhaps the whole thing needed more time to workshop, rewrite, develop, rehearse, etc. And that takes rupees.

Anyway, using Stoppard as the measure of quality is setting the bar insanely high, don't you think? And even Stoppard tosses off a Bourne Ultimatum for every Arcadia.

I completely agree with Cicatrix's review. Although the seven plays were definitely uneven in terms of writing, acting, and general exocution, I still had an overall fun time when I saw this show last weekend. It was a light, goofy, enjoyable way to spend 90 minutes. I have never seen "7-11" before, so I cannot comment or compare with previous editions of it, but I don't think that is Cicatrix's job as a reviewer either. I think it's perfectly fair to review something based on its own merits, and not on imposed expectations which have resulted from seeing previous editions of it, or from seeing any other shows (Stoppard, etc). That said, I will admit that my girlfriend did not enjoy "7-11" very much at all. I thought it would also be funny to mention that on Feb 24th (I remember it because it was the longest day of my life), for my girlfriend's birthday, I got us two tickets to see the entire Tom Stoppard trilogy "The Coast of Utopia" at Lincoln Center that day. She loves Tom Stoppard, and loved the entire twelve-hour (!!) show experience that day. I found it incredibly boring and pretentious (but since she enjoyed it, I was happy). I guess my point is--and we, as a couple, are evidence of this--there seems to be an audience for both kinds of shows. Now, I just work on Wall Street, so I may not know what I'm talking about, but that's just my two cents on my two recent visits into the theater world...

egads! i should never have mentioned stoppard. that being said, kapoorNYC is correct in that people have many tastes, and that i'm not a fan of "light, goofy".

should anyone want to see nyc desi theater on a regular basis, i'd encourage you to attend the monthly SALAAM readings as a starting place.

Nothing wrong with mentioning Stoppard. He spent formative years in Calcutta and attended La Martiniere! Honorary brown. And how funny was Rosencrantz & Guildenstern?

I went to the show last night, and had a very good time. For just $18 a ticket, I felt like I got my money's worth (e.g. I paid $110 a ticket for top seats at "Wicked" on Broadway a few months ago, which, by the way, was worth it too) for an evening out at the theater. Sure, "7-11" wasn't perfect, but, all in all, i had fun, and so did my two friends who came with me. Also, I'm a Master's student in sociology, and couldn't help but notice the way that the puerile humor of the final two pieces completely do away with the stereotype of the 'Asian model-minority' by presenting Asian characters who are drinking, smoking pot, having kinky role-playing sex, and...obsessing about women's asses! I was quite surprised by how much I enjoyed these two pieces in particular. Indeed, why should white people have a monopoly on puerile humor, a la the "American Pie" movies? It was bizarrely refreshing to see Asians (brown and yellow) eschewing the usual science/math/medicine/family/overachiever paradigm in favor of naughtier, raunchier fare, in the spirit of films like "Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle" and "Better Luck Tomorrow". The acting and direction felt somewhat amateurish at times (actors were performing loudly and over-the-top during moments in the other five pieces where some more subtle and quiet work may have been more effective), and the seven plays were not all at the same level in terms of quality of writing, but, again, as a whole, it was a show that I am glad I saw.

Saw it yesterday afternoon. It was a fun show. My favorites were the same two that AshaBhosleFan liked: The one with the Chinese girl who gets into Stanford was cool and creepy. The brainfreeze slurpee play with Debargo Senyal was hilarious. It had the great threadcount-butterfly kisses line that cicatrix mentioned, but also stuff about hrithik roshen's six fingers, jake gyllanhall & heath ledgar from 'brokeback mountian', sanjaya from 'american idol', "it was KARMA. it was DHARMA. it was GREG", and "are you a hinDO or hinDON'T?". Funny, funny stuff. He should be a tv sitcom writer or something.

So I finally saw it this past Friday and to be honest have to say I was disappointed. I think a couple of stories were fine, the excessive sexually charged nature of so many of the skits and the partial nudity (she's hot I'm not complaing) was a bit jarring. I wish I had a little warning. I took some of my boyfriend's relatives and I absolutely would not have if I'd known it was that way. It made me uncomfortable. The MTV Desi bit was funny, a few others were touching but for the most part the show was disappointing.

By the way the Asian guy (I can't remember his name) from last year's production was in the Soprano's episode last night but I couldn't find anything about him on the Desipina website.

Seven 11 has added 3 additional shows in Queens so if you missed the 'butterfly kisses' or wanted to see some raunchy desi makeout action again, you can go to their April 20-22 shows during the Asian Cultural Festival at Queens Theatre. Info is at www.desipina.org.

Yes, that brainfreeze play had some hilarious one-liners in it, plus a hot desi chick running around on stage in her bra!! I did have a good time at this show--but the fact that I had come with some friends, directly from a happy hour at a nearby bar, certainly helped. If you're looking for serious acting and writing, you should skip this. But if you're just looking for a fun time, then it's a cool little show worth checking out.

The people who posted comments about "7-11" (which I saw a couple weeks ago--it was okay...not as good as previous years) at Ultrabrown.com, turned me on to three other plays that I got to see this week. They were all thought-provoking and smart. One is called TOPSY TURVY MOUSE (which includes an Indian mom and her 15-year-old son among the characters), which is inspired by the story of the American soldiers who tortured the Abu Ghraib prisoners. It is at the Cherry Lane Theater. Another is called BENGAL TIGER AT THE BAGHDAD ZOO (written by an Indian playwright, and featuring an Indian actor in the cast), which is about a pair of American soldiers in the Middle East and the sad fate that befalls them, as well as people of the country they have invaded. It is at the Lark Play Development Center. And the third is called SERENDIB (which has three desi characters in it), a light-hearted story set in Sri Lanka about a group of animal behavior scientists whose lives parallel those of the monkeys they are studying. It is at the Ensemble Studio Theatre. I would recommend all three of these plays for folks (like BrooklynBrown above) who are looking for something a bit deeper than "7-11".

That brainfreeze sketch was a riot--but I did have one problem with it: how come only the desi chick had to strip down to her bra and parade around stage half-naked, but the two cute desi boys didn't have to show as much skin too?!!! I was expecting some bare brown man chests, dammit, haha!! Raunchy fun is all good, but only if it's equal opportunity. If she had to show skin up there, the men should have had to as well, right?! Otherwise, it's somewhat sexist, which would be odd because, according to their website, the "7-11" show is produced every year by a pair of...women (they are sisters)!

Good point, Rupal! I'm definitely not a prude, but that still sounds kinda sexist to me. I wonder if the director of this show was a man or a woman? But, regardless, a show that is produced by two women should not be making one of their female actors run around on stage in just her bra...unless the men in the cast have to also show some skin--i think that would level the playing field...