Crude Awakening

Powered by greed, the corporate establishment digs for oil any place it can. Sometimes it’s in the Alaskan wilderness; other times it’s in Middle Eastern deserts. In the musical comedy Dear World, now playing at Kalliope Stage, it’s under a Paris café. The action revolves around an eccentric cast of dreamers and idealists -- including the crazy Countess Aurelia and the Sewerman, whose big number is called “Garbage” -- who fight to keep their neighborhood shop from the money-hungry capitalists who want to blow it up. “This is a fable,” says director Paul Gurgol. @cal body 1:Based on Jean Giraudoux’s The Madwoman of Chaillot, Dear World (which opens Kalliope’s fifth season this weekend) made its Broadway debut in 1969. But it’s still a relevant piece of theater, says Gurgol, “because of what we’re dealing with.” Namely, politics and oil. Plus, there’s plenty of satire. “People need to laugh, and we can laugh,” he says. “But at the same time, there is a message. It’s very poignant fluff.”
Wednesdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Starts: Sept. 28. Continues through Oct. 21, 2007