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The plot twist in this play about a modified-town-hall-style candidate forum was that all the questions had to be related to The Arts. This was revealed early on in the action, and made for an interesting introspection that self-examined itself and babbled permuted versions of itself in various distortions and re-phrasings.

The cast made a brave stand against this confusing tangle. They used a team approach: for example, in opening statements Eddie Eubanks had 'em laughing while Dan Johnson, ever the straight man, promised more Police Officers in the streets.

The Two Most Popular Candidates kept themselves a safe distance from The Arts throughout the show, which was quite a feat, given the limitation on topics. Ann Coulter has "only recently understood the power of" The Arts, and Ron Littlefield attends events occasionally, plus he put up with having a son who is a drummer. If I had to call one the winner of this contest, though, it would be Littlefield, as Coulter caved later in the program and was quite conversant at times about the importance of keeping The Arts alive in the City.

The best comedic moments were by Eubanks who, in a twice-removed aside to the audience on the convoluted nature of the questioning, promised that his answer would be nothing more than "the same soup warmed over;" and Johnson who, when asked if he would support nude sculpture as public art in the City, said that he had no problem with nude sculpture, and went on to quip to the questioner, "you got one handy?" Some might argue that that was topped by Eubanks' volley return of "Chattanooga is supposed to be the Bible Belt of the South." That one was just too surreal for me, though, and left an acid taste.

Ms. Prim would not have us have any of that nude sculpture, however, and she cheerfully chided the entire proceedings for forgetting that there are Kids around the City and that they should not be given such exposure to (or is it by?) The Arts. Ironically, a consistent theme from this character was more youth involvement in The Arts.

The Philosopher kept gently veering back to how everything would be so different if we all amended our belief systems with a New Management Paradigm. They should have given him a few more lines, because there was potential there to mix his cerebral headiness with the earthiness of Eubanks and set them both against Johnson's coy straight send-up for a hilarious triple-whammy.

The obvious dramatic climax would have been a sort of showdown between the Two Most Popular Candidates, but this show's clever director waited until near the end, and suddenly a question arose from the audience that was directed to Dan Johnson and was about Gay Marriage, and which the Emcee artfully wrestled back to the seats because it did not fall within the topic (The Arts).

The touching, human, highlight of this show was when each candidate was asked to specify how s/he is personally involved in The Arts. We discovered that most of them participate directly (or did at one time) in music or visual arts -- heck, there would have been almost a whole band onstage if they had all brought their instruments. (Hey, where's Dalton Roberts?) The crowd also got to learn of Eddie Eubanks' fascination with cave paintings and ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.

My favorite question from the Audience was from a woman who wanted to know what each candidate would do to really connect The Arts with economic growth in the City, and to basically ensure that Artists are able to make living wages from applying their creativity, as downtown beautification alone is not enough.

Sadly, the show's one flaw was that not one of the candidates could muster a coherent answer to this question (though to be fair, I don't think all the performers were given coherence as a stage direction). Ann Coulter did later say that all of the elements are already here in the City for The Arts to truly permeate our community -- the gorgeous backdrop of natural scenery (this aspect was echoed by Littlefield, though he referred to it as a gift from God), the current and planned architectural embellishments and other design elements, the budding public-private partnerships; and that the right Mayor could lead us into the next phase where our neighborhoods reflect our pride in them through our artistic output.

All in all, it was a great program, and since it was free I am astonished and dismayed that the theater was only a quarter or so filled.