Grimm

In the cast bios in Grimm’s program, the actors all talk about what a terrible experience they’ve had working on the show and how they’d rather be doing anything else. It’s presumably meant as a jokey turnabout on the overexuberance of the average bio, in which every actor is inevitably “thrilled” to be there; if that’s true, it’s the cleverest thing Grimm has going for it.

Harris’s puerile adaptation of two Brothers Grimm tales, “Hansel and Gretel” and “Rumpelstiltskin,” adds nothing new to the stories aside from some deeply disturbing sexual references. We’re no prudes, but when the witch pins down Gretel (who is being played as a very young girl) and puts her hand up Gretel’s skirt then licks her fingers, we aren’t amused. Harris seems to have made the sophomoric assumption that sex plus swear words equals “edgy.” It doesn’t. What’s worse, much of Harris’s script barely qualifies as English, or else the actors are so underrehearsed they’re choking the grammar right out of his lines.

The material isn’t helped by Tucker’s half-assed staging. Working as a late-night show on someone else’s set has its difficulties, but Tucker hardly seems to be trying; improv shows are blocked with more precision. We’ll refrain from blaming the green cast members for any of the mess; after all, they’ve already told us they know how grim it really is.