Last Wednesday at Cholmondeley's, the Hillel Theater Group (HTG) hosted their Biloxi Blues Coffeehouse. It brought together some of Brandeis's most well-known performers for an entertaining night of music and mayhem. Comedian Richard Rubin '05, vocalist Drew Cohen '05, a cappella ensembles Manginah and Up the Octave and improvisational troupe False Advertising performed to raise money for HTG's upcoming production of Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues. The packed crowd at Chum's certainly seemed to have had a great time based on their consistent, roaring applause for all performing acts. About 25 students, most whom were from the Biloxi Blues cast, arrived at the start of the coffeehouse to see comedian Richard Rubin. Taking the stage to perform what he called his "Kataa exercises," Rubin made a huge show of removing his shoes and socks. He then began a slow-motion kung-fu routine complete with ninja screams and bizarre expressions that had the small audience at Chum's in fits of laughter.

Although Rubin was listed at the opening act for the coffeehouse, the hilarious junior disappointingly only performed for five minutes, denying the crowd any glimpse of his stand-up or other comedic skills.

Drew Cohen '05 of Brandeis Voicemale - by far the night's most talented performer - took the stage next, singing various popular hits as well as some of his own works. Although Cohen forgot some of the lyrics in many of the eight songs he performed, the soulful, passionate quality of his stunning voice outshone the memory of his errors. From his expressive bluegrass rendition of Smokey Robinson's "Tears of Clown" to his stirring sound on Simple Minds' "Don't You Forget About Me," Cohen truly put his heart and soul into his music. He would often close his eyes and rock his body along with the music. Cohen also sang Vanessa Carleton's "A Thousand Miles" because a Justice reporter who covered another coffeehouse he performed at loved his rendition of the song. "A Thousand Miles" really showcased Cohen's impressive guitar talent as well as vocal ability as his soaring voice on the song's chorus was incredibly stirring.

Cohen remarked at the end of his 35 minute set that by the number of Jews gathering in the room, he could tell it was almost time for Manginah. Indeed, Chum's was packed to capacity by the time Manginah, Brandeis's coed Israeli a cappella group, took the stage. The 15 members of Manginah sang six songs, which included the highly publicized premiere of the group's rendition of the popular Hebrew tune "Darkeynu." Manginah's fantastic energy made the groups performance enjoyable. The group was so into their performance of "David Melech" that the Chum's stage shook.

While Manginah's song arrangements and creative choreography helped make the singers enjoyable to watch, the group's soloists tainted the overall quality of the group's performance. Many of the soloists, especially the male singers, had sweet yet insipidly bland voices that resulted in making the renditions of their songs less than captivating. While the soloist for "Darkeynu" did have a pretty voice, her expressionless face made the slow song feel even more tedious. Shira Margolies '04, on "David Melech," stood out as the only impressive soloist for Manginah, as her laudable voice and amazing energy helped to make her whole group sound better. While many of the individual members of Manginah may not have the most formidable voices, together the group is at least still pleasant enough to please their devoted throngs of fans for now.

Up the Octave was the second a cappella group of the night to perform, back from their short hiatus last spring. Led by veteran members Bineti Vitta '04 and Courtney Whyte '05, Up the Octave put on a reasonably good performance for an ensemble in which seven of the nine singers are new to the group as semester. Though the group lacked the high energy and innovative choreography of Manginah, the vocal talent of Up the Octave made the ladies a pleasure to listen to during their half-hour set. Most impressive was Whyte's expressive, sultry sound for her solo on Otis Redding's "Dock of the Bay," which brought down the coffeehouse into explosive cheers. With great renditions of songs such as Savage Garden's "The Lover After Me" and gifted,new singers such as Molly Hauptman '07 performing Sarah McLachlan's "Possession," Up the Octave is definitely a Brandeis a cappella group on the rise.

The brilliantly talented, side-splittingly hilarious comedy troupe False Advertising, gave an uproarious end to the Biloxi Blues coffeehouse. For forty-five minutes, the nine members of False Ad had the crowd at Chum's laughing non-stop during improv games such as "Angel/Devil" and "Eulogy." Jake Kamins '04 in particular stood-out for his performance during the game "Schizo Debate," where his internal debate of the pros and cons for drug legalization sent the audience into peels of laughter. False Ad's closing game, "Triple Dubbing," was by far the group's most hilarious performance of the night. Kamins, Weldon Kennedy '06 and Mike Popper '05 each pretended to be a certain personality in a supermarket while doing the voice for one fellow performer's characters. The expressions and gestures of the boys as they attempted to portray two different people at once had this reporter laughing so hard that she almost couldn't breathe.

Overall, the coffeehouse was a huge success filled with enjoyable performances that provided great publicity for HTG's production of Biloxi Blues. HTG will present Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues on Nov. 13 and Nov. 15 in the Shapiro Campus Center.