by Melanie Wong

In accordance with their self-proclaimed mission to reach new audiences and change America’s “stuffy” and “elitist” perception of opera, nonprofit organization Opera on Tap presented their first original opera, SMASHED: The Carrie Nation Story, last week at HERE Arts Center. Lightly based on the story of legendary temperance leader Carrie Nation, the one-act opera told the story of booze: the people who drink it, and the people who don’t.

As audience members found their seats in the black box theater, they passed an onstage urinal next to a New York Department of Health "C"-grade sign, a lone drunk sitting at a bar, and a group of noodling musicians—each with beer in hand. The lone drunk proved to be the narrator (portrayed by Lynn Berg) and opened the show by stumbling over the audience, greeting them as he went.

The ensuing hour proved to be a hilarious slapstick-style opera that included a supermodel-status God, played by Joseph Flaxman, who Carrie addressed as “Big Dog,” communicated through an oversized diamond-crusted iPhone, donned Ray-Bans, consistently re-enacted a Sistine Chapel pose with his followers, and gifted Carrie with a scared jumbo bottle of tequila. Other highlights included the “27 Evils of Booze,” during which a newly sober Carrie (Krista Wozniak) and the bartender (also performed by Flaxman) entered into a debate over the pros and cons of alcohol, while a scientist (Flaxman again) gave an amusing lecture on beer.