Jared Anderson and Derek Arey face each other, leaning forward in folding chairs on the stage at Sweet Briar College’s Babcock Theater.

They’re rehearsing a scene from Endstation Theatre’s “The Bluest Water,” an original play about the impact Hurricane Camille had when it hit Nelson County in 1969.

The play is the cornerstone of the Amherst-based company’s Blue Ridge Summer Theatre Festival, one of our area’s first. It wraps up this weekend with one already sold-out performance of “The Bluest Water” and two performances of “Romeo and Juliet,” an outdoor production set in front of Sweet Briar’s Benedict Building. Tickets to both of those shows are still available. 

In “The Bluest Water,” Anderson and Arey play Emory and Neddy, who are, in this particular scene, at odds over whether Neddy should close down a Lovingston liquor store after the storm. Emory is a state policeman, and Neddy is his ne’er-do-well little brother.

It’s a tense face-off between their characters, but Anderson and Arey can’t help but laugh as they botch a few lines here and there.

Director Geoff Kershner, who has been watching, rises from his seat.

“Alright,” he says. “Let’s get it up on its feet a little bit.”

Anderson and Arey make their way to the edge of the nearly empty stage, where Anderson latches onto Arey’s shirt and pushes him into the center. When he lets go, Arey stalks away from him. Both are fuming, and there’s no more laughter - unless the script calls for it - as they go into character.

While they run their lines, Kershner watches thoughtfully from a folding chair, chin resting on his palm. Then he’s leaning back, arms crossed. Later, he’s across the stage, watching from the wings. He stops the action every so often with suggestions as Anderson and Arey go through the scene over and over again for an hour and a half.

“And,” Kershner jokes about halfway through rehearsal, “take 25.”

Outside energy
A few days before that June rehearsal, Kershner and Arey were immersed in another rehearsal, this time a fight choreography session for “Romeo & Juliet” (see Page 15).

Temperatures were in the 90s, and it was just too hot to rehearse outside. So the cast gathered on the Babcock stage, where they rehearsed the famous “Bite my thumb” scene, in which factions of the Montague and Capulet families brawl.

Kershner stood off to the side, tossing out items to incorporate into the fray: sticks, canes and even a few parasols.

“We’re gonna have some fun,” he said with a laugh, handing Arey a belt.

As Balthasar, Arey mussed up his hair and circled the stage, snapping the belt ominously in an effort to intimidate his foes.

He is one of six actors to appear in both “Romeo & Juliet” and “The Bluest Water.”

For them, the festival has been a blur of read-throughs, rehearsals, and dance and fight sessions that began in late May and ran right up until opening night earlier this week.

The actors come from all over. Many, including Arey and Anderson, are local. Others, like recent Florida State University graduates Natalie Caruncho and Michael Stablein, Jr., come from out of state and have been staying on Sweet Briar’s campus this summer.

“It’s important for us that we’re embracing local artists and presenting local artists, but at the same time, infusing some interesting outside energy,” Kershner says.

Curtain call
Cut to four weeks later: Opening night for “The Bluest Water.”

Every line has been pored over, every action plotted out.

“It’s really come together,” Anderson says a few hours before show time, adding that watching the opening scene during a recent rehearsal “literally gave me chills, it was just so intense.”

About 60 seats have been set up on the Babcock stage, creating the intimate, up-close-and-personal atmosphere Kershner and Endstation co-founder/scenic designer Krista Franco originally envisioned for this production.

The set has come together quickly, a motley collection of debris - mounds of dirt, an overturned wheel barrow, a set of torn blinds - intended to show the aftermath of a devastating storm.

Franco’s goal was to fill the small space with “historic remnants of a time forgotten,” she says, with “the walls and debris piles (getting) higher as we go around.”

The play has been a labor of love for Kershner, Franco and their Endstation collaborators, who include playwright Jason Chimonides, lighting designer and Amherst native Dan Gallagher, sound designer Bryce Page, production manager Maria Hayden, technical director J.D. Stallings and costume designer/actress Sally Southall.

Kershner and Franco started Endstation in 2006 with the goal of creating works that were specific to our area.

“It’s neat to sit in the theater and hear locations from the area mentioned,” Kershner says. “We’re really trying to find a local voice in this.”

Enter Hurricane Camille, which ripped through Central Virginia and left areas, particularly Nelson County, devastated.

Kershner knew he wanted to create an original play about the storm, so he and his cohorts began collecting stories from people in the community, asking them about their memories and how it affected their lives.

New York-based playwright Chimonides was a central figure in those collections and began doing research during a visit to Amherst in the fall of 2006. He was back again in the spring, when he started on the script while a fellow-in-residence at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in Amherst.

“What struck me the most, truthfully, was how personal this was,” he says.

“It was just as massive and important and tragic for this community (as other natural disasters are), but it was also on this small, personal scale. It was just so local.”

He used the collected stories as a jumping off point to a fictional story, using composite characters of real people.

Anderson says that while they’re not portraying real people, they’re still talking about things and situations that did happen.

“Knowing that we are dealing with something so close to home has made it that much more real and powerful.”

Filling a need
The idea for a festival came after Endstation’s inception.

“It became the idea once we got here,” Kershner says. “It enables us to concentrate all our time in this sort of 3-, 4-month period.”

Kershner says they might still put on the occasional production during the year. But most of their efforts will be focused on the summer festival, which they hope will grow every year.

The plan will be to always include at least one locally set piece. Next year’s lineup is already set: an outdoor production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and two indoor productions, “Crime and Punishment” and “My Brother’s Knife: A Madison Heights Odyssey.”

They find inspiration in the Utah Shakespearean Festival, which is held in Cedar City every year. Kershner says the festival is in a rural area, but still manages to attract talented actors and big audiences.

Franco says they want to do something similar but “with our own flair, doing the local historical pieces and producing new work.”

“We’re recognized as part of the arts community here,” she adds. “Two years in the making.”

IF YOU’RE GOING:
WHAT: The Blue Ridge Summer Theatre Festival
WHEN: The festival features two plays, ‘The Bluest Water’ and an outdoor production of ‘Romeo & Juliet.’ Performances of ‘The Bluest Water’ are sold out. ‘Romeo & Juliet’ is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday and Saturday.
WHERE: Sweet Briar College in Amherst
TICKETS: Students $5, Adults $10.
INFO: Call (434) 381-6537 or visit http://www.endstationtheatre.org
SPECIAL: People coming to see “Romeo & Juliet” can bring a picnic.

For Endstation Theatre founders Geoff Kershner and Krista Franco, the Sweet Briar College campus offers a wealth of unique theatrical opportunities.

“At Endstation, we’re really interested in environment, in what makes theater exciting,” says Kershner, an Amherst native. “Why see theater rather than a movie?”

With its red brick buildings set on rolling hills and lush, open fields that offer views of the mountains, Sweet Briar was the ideal location to put on an outdoor production for their first-ever Blue Ridge Summer Theatre Festival.

“Romeo & Juliet” will be performed in front of Sweet Briar’s Benedict Building.

“We knew we wanted to do an outdoor Shakespeare, so I went wandering around the campus, looking for inspiration,” says director Bill Kershner, chairman of Sweet Briar’s theater and dance departments and Geoff Kershner’s father.

Benedict’s second-floor balcony sealed the deal, and the production team quickly got to work on the logistics. The brick walkway leading away from the building is now the stage, and the grass on both sides of it will be where the audience sits.

“What really appeals to me is that we can move the action in and out of the audience, so that Romeo is standing among the audience during the balcony scene, and he’s standing among the audience when he first sees Juliet,” Bill Kershner, also an Endstation board member, says.

An outdoor production has its challenges, and you’d expect weather to be one of the biggest. But he says it hasn’t been as great a factor as he’d expected. Still, they’ve built in several rain dates just in case.

Having no real backstage area was another issue, but he found an interesting way to fix that problem: seating the Montagues and Capulets on the grass with the audience, where they’re having a picnic and from where they join the onstage action when the script calls for it.

“It’s one of those things in creative work (where) an obstacle becomes an impetus for creativity,” Bill Kershner says.

He set the production in 1901, the year Sweet Briar was founded.

“1901 is a nice period where the ladies wore these beautiful white dresses,” he says. “It looks great. It’s really neat to see everybody in those Edwardian costumes against the backdrop of Benedict. It feels right.

“It seems (almost) like a garden party.”

A garden party that can get rough at times.

“What’s fun about an outdoor production,” he says, “is the fight scenes can be more real.”

Venue opens Friday
Fifth Street is the place to be for live music Friday night, with shows at Starlight Café and Speakertree Records, the city’s newest venue.

Speakertree Records, a record shop at 522 Fifth St., is celebrating its grand opening with a live show at 7 p.m. In addition to selling vinyls, CDs and other merchandise, the shop seeks to be a hub for live music.

Headlining the show is The Extraordinaires, a folk rock band from South Philadelphia known for their theatrical stage performances. Their show will feature new music, due to appear on their upcoming third album.

Tavo Carbone, an experimental folk musician from Brooklyn, and The Late Virginia Summers, a local ambient/instrumental band will also take the stage.

Two doors down, Starlight Café will host a night of live music on their outdoor patio, starting at 7 p.m.

The main act is Panda Transport, an electro pop duo from Charlottesville, featuring Kathy Compton, an American pop/jazz songstress, and Thierry Holweck, a French electronic artist. The duo creates simple melodies set against a complex soundscape of natural and electronic instrumentation. Compton’s sultry voice gives the songs a dream-like quality.

Their newest album, “Plush Mechanique,” has received a string of favorable reviews, including praise from The Onion: “Kathy Compton’s breathy melodies and sassy song writing float lovingly over Theirry Holweck’s warm digital textures and live instrumentation.”

House Band brings funk to The Ellington Saturday
The House Band will rock The Ellington with a night of R&B, Motown and funk Saturday.

The 12-piece cover band from Lynchburg, which has been playing in the area for about six years, features a full horn section and cover songs from the 1960s to today, specializing in R&B and funk from the 1970s.

Doors open at 7:30 p.m., and music begins at 8:30. Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door.

Tickets are available at Blue Marlin Seafood on Bedford Avenue, High Peak Sportswear on Main Street, Lynchburg Music on Fort Avenue, Outdoors Trails at Boonsboro Shopping Center and Stones n’ Bones at Graves Mill Center in Forest, or online at http://www.theellington.org.

Master guitarist to play free concert in Amherst
The Amherst Glebe Arts Response will present a free concert by master guitar player and composer Philippe Bertaud at 7 p.m. Sunday, at Amherst Glebe, 156 Patrick Henry Highway, Amherst. Bertaud’s music include classical compositions, U.S. and Brazilian jazz, country, original compositions and music from many countries he has visitied. Seating is limited and reservations can be made by e-mailing agarva@aol.com or calling (434) 946-0116.

Wytheville theatre is destination for trip
The Amherst County Parks and Recreation Department will sponsor a trip to the Wohlfahrt Haus Dinner Theatre in Wytheville, to see a performance of “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” on Sept. 25. The cost is $74 per person. Registration begins at 9 a.m. Monday. Call (434) 946-9371.

The scene inside Lynchburg College’s Helen Wood Recital Hall looks and sounds as if it could be a gospel concert.

About 13 high school and college students are standing in a circle, clapping their hands and singing. A few don long, white robes.

“Listen to Jesus, Jimmy,” the group harmonizes. “Just say no to the marijuana.”

Gospel this is not.

The performers are area students who have performed together for several years and only just recently gave themselves a name: the Ivy Mountain Players.

They’re rehearsing a song from the musical “Reefer Madness,” a satire of a 1936 propaganda film made to warn parents about the dangers of drug use. In it, a group of clean-cut, well-behaved kids descend into madness after they’re coerced into trying marijuana. Ivy Mountain is staging a production of it this weekend (see box).

“It was supposed to scare the youth off of using drugs,” says James Ballard, who is directing and starring in the play. “It was intended to be totally serious. (But) it’s just hilarious how terrible it actually is.

“It’s so bad it’s good.”

The film never really garnered much attention until the 1970s, when it became a cult hit.

In 1998, the musical version opened in a theater in Los Angeles and later debuted off-Broadway in 2001. It has recently found a following on college campuses, says Dana Ballard, James’ mother and Ivy Mountain’s musical director.

“It’s really sort of poking fun at the 1930s, 1940s paranoia, anti-everything propaganda,” says James Ballard. “It completely lampoons that mindset of ‘Everything needs to be censored.’”

But he’s quick to point out that it does not glorify drug use either.

“It lampoons both censorship and drug use at the same time,” he says. “It takes a controversial issue and makes both sides of it look stupid.”

The result is a play within a play, set in 1936. It begins with a lecturer - “sort of Stephen Colbert in a musical,” Ballard says - who emerges to tell the audience about a show he’s written outlining the dangers of the “demon weed.”

The lecturer’s play then begins, cutting to the wholesome Jimmy Harper, played by Ballard, and his girlfriend Mary Lane.

“He starts out as the good, all-American boy, takes one puff and goes crazy,” Ballard says.

Prior to their foray into “Reefer Madness,” the Ivy Mountain Players acted together mostly in church productions during the summer. Separately, most of them also participate in their high school and college theater programs.

This summer, they ventured out on their own with the goal of doing something a little different.

“The big issue we were faced with every time was censorship,” Ballard says. “It had to be family-friendly, which is fine. But it was always frustrating that we never could do what we wanted.”

The production is entirely student-run, save for Dana Ballard’s role as musical director.

James Ballard says they’ve been having fun with it.

“It’s a funny show,” he says. “The songs are really, really catchy. It’s a legitimately good musical.”

“When we’re (rehearsing),” he adds with a laugh, “it’s like, ‘I can’t believe we can actually do this now.’”

IF YOU’RE GOING:
WHAT: ‘Reefer Madness’
WHEN: 8 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday
WHERE: Lynchburg College’s Helen Wood Recital Hall
TICKETS: $8 for adults and $5 for students. Tickets can be purchased at the door, and only cash will be accepted.
INFO: (434) 610-8645

Movie theaters in Lynchburg are slated to get a new competitor next year, as Regal Entertainment opens the first new theater here in 17 years.

Regal will operate the 56,000- square-foot movieplex in River Ridge mall, in the location of the Value City store that closed last month.

The 14 screens will raise the region’s screen count to 32. It also will add another 2,400 seats.

The new theater will have digital surround sound and new concessions, and will be the first in the area with stadium seating.

An official with Regal said he’s confident the market has enough demand to support the theater.

But will there be room for other new theaters as well?

The movie theater business can be extremely competitive - if two theaters locate within three miles of each other, they can’t both get the same movie at the same time. Sometimes, the potential for competition keeps a theater out.

The development of the Regal theater has put on hold plans to secure a theater for the Lakeside Center development planned by English Construction.The project came about because of the efforts of the mall’s parent company, CBL & Associates Properties, and Regal Entertainment Group. Both Tennessee-headquartered companies were looking at bringing a better theater to Lynchburg.

“That’s really what the residents and the shoppers have been asking for,” said Katie Reinsmidt, corporate communications director for CBL.

She said the company learned that some people in the Lynchburg area were driving an hour to theaters in Roanoke and Charlottesville.

Lynchburg currently has 22 big screens - 10 at the discount Cinemark theater in Candler’s Station, four at the Carmike in River Ridge mall, and eight at Carmike’s Plaza location.

The Carmike at the Plaza was the last one to open, in 1991. The Cinemark theater in Candler’s Station opened the year before.

The Carmike theater in the mall will close once the Regal theater opens next year. James Dolan, mall manager, said it will be converted to retail space.

Browning said he’s certain the Regal theater - with new concessions, digital surround sound, and plush rocking seats - will do well in the market.

“Theaters bring restaurants, and restaurants bring people,” Booth said. “It creates synergy around the shopping environment.”

Booth said at one point he was in discussions with Regal to run a theater in Lakeside Center. His discussions went further with another company, though.

“We’re still pursuing it. We may not be as successful as we previously thought, but we are very much pursuing it and still think it’s a possibility,” he said.

The final decision about whether Lakeside will get a theater will be determined by the success of the Regal at the mall, Booth said. 

Dear Outraged over rumor: There is a very straightforward quote by American author and entrepreneur, Brian Koslow, that you should consider: “Never make negative comments or spread rumors about anyone. It depreciates their reputation and yours.” Terrance spread this rumor for some reason, whether to make him look good, to feel better about himself or maybe to get your attention. Whatever the reason isn’t important because office gossip isn’t important. If you want to distance yourself from such lies, don’t stoop to other people’s levels and spread more gossip (even if it is true). Refuse to be part of such behavior by not spreading or listening to what people have to say. People will respect you for this and will soon ignore what others may be whispering about you behind your back. The results of this approach may not seem speedy enough for you at first, but they certainly will be long-lasting.

Dear Emily: One of my friends used to date this girl, “Anna,” whom I’ve always liked. When they stopped seeing each other (it was never that serious), I asked her out. We’ve been out a few times, mostly going to parties where all of our friends go. While I really like this girl, she comes across really hot and cold with me. It seems like every time there are other guys around, like the one she used to date, she is all over me. I’m afraid she’s playing games and just using me to make other guys jealous. How do I find out if she is really into me?
- Not into playing games

Dear Not into playing games: Your solution is quite simple. Go out alone with Anna without these other guys around. If, on your other dates, she was only using you to make people jealous, you should notice a change in behavior when it’s just the two of you. If she is “cold,” as you put it, perhaps she isn’t really into you. If on the other hand, she is more receptive, maybe the problem isn’t that she doesn’t like you but just that she has a hard time being herself when other people are around. Try a few of these more intimate dates and then re-evaluate the situation. If you aren’t happy with the results, it may be time to sit down with Anna and ask her straight out how she truly feels.

Dear Emily: My girlfriend quit her part-time job a few weeks ago because she had plans to accept a better, full-time position she was offered. Unfortunately, she didn’t take this better job because it turned out it wasn’t at all what she expected. Now she is unemployed and asks to borrow money from me constantly. I am saving for college and don’t have extra cash to be giving her all the time, but she is really sensitive and I don’t want to hurt her feelings. How do I explain to her that I’m not her personal ATM?
- Breaking the Bank

Dear Breaking the Bank: Neither one of you has money to burn, and you need to make that obvious to your girlfriend. The next time you go out on a date, don’t suggest dinner and a movie; ask your girlfriend if she’d mind just renting one to save some money since you’re trying to save for school. And when you’re both out somewhere and feeling hungry, recommend going to one of your houses for some food, rather than spending money you don’t have at a restaurant. A few subtle suggestions like these will hopefully give your girlfriend the hint. If it doesn’t, you’ll just have to spell it out for her. I know you want to spare her feelings, but it is unacceptable to take advantage of someone else’s generosity, and this is a lesson your girlfriend should know by now.

Q: I heard the foreign song, “O Sole Mio,” recently, and I’m positive that I’ve heard the melody before in another song. It has been stuck in my head ever since I heard it, and I cannot think of the other song. Can you help me?

A: The song you’re thinking of is “It’s Now or Never” by Elvis Presley. “O Sole Mio” is an old European song that was written in 1898 in the Neapolitan language of southern Italy. The great tenor Enrico Caruso helped popularize the song in the early 20th century. In 1949, singer Tony Martin used the melody of “O Sole Mio” in a song called “There’s No Tomorrow.” Ten years later, while stationed in Germany, Elvis heard Martin’s song and asked his music publisher to find someone to rewrite the song with new lyrics. Aaron Schroeder and Wally Gold were given the task and came up with “It’s Now or Never.” The duo also wrote the Presley hit, “Good Luck Charm.” Two other Presley hits, “Surrender” and “Love Me Tender,” were also rewrites of older Italian songs. “It’s Now or Never” became a No. 1 hit for five weeks in the U.S. in 1960. It also became one of his biggest international hits, selling more than 20 million copies worldwide.

Q: I recently heard “Solsbury Hill” by Peter Gabriel and have always wondered about the significance of Solsbury Hill to the song. Can you tell me?

A: “Solsbury Hill” is the second song on Gabriel’s first eponymously titled solo album following his exit from the Genesis, the progressive rock band he co-founded while in school. It was also his first solo single. Solsbury Hill itself is a 625-foot high, flat-topped hill in Somerset, England, that overlooks the town of Bath in southwest England. Reportedly, Gabriel wrote the song after climbing the hill and taking in the sweeping panorama it offers. By brilliantly and succinctly explaining why he left Genesis (“which connection I should cut”), the song is ultimately a testament about finding one’s courage to take the risk of possibly giving up everything in order to achieve something greater. Gabriel is quoted as saying the song is about letting go. There has been much speculation about the line in the song that describes an eagle flying out of the night. Some see it as a metaphor for Jesus, especially since the eagle is later quoted as saying, “Son, grab my hand I’ve come to take you home.” It has been reported that the eagle represented Bruce Springsteen. Gabriel was said to have seen Springsteen in concert around this time and was impressed with the Boss’ energy, so much so that it inspired Gabriel to leave Genesis. While this might be true, we can find no evidence that Gabriel has actually confirmed this story.

Q: What is the name of the song featured in JC Penney’s “American Living” ad in which children are playing on a bed in the woods?
A: The song featured in the ad is “Killing the Blues” by Robert Plant and Allison Krauss. Originally written and recorded by Rowland Salley in 1977, the song has been recorded by artists like John Prine and Shawn Colvin. Plant and Krauss’ version can be found on their critically-acclaimed album “Raising Sand.”

What’s the name of that song? Where are they now? What does that lyric mean? Send questions to ontherecord99@aol.com or visit http://www.music
ontherecord.com. Brady and Maron are freelance music writers based in Raleigh, N.C.

CD REVIEW:‘Untitled’
ARTIST: Nas
LABEL: Def Jam
REVIEWER RATING: 3 out of 5

Don’t be fooled by “Queens Get The Money,” the bracing opener of Nas’ now-untitled ninth solo album: It sounds like nothing else on the CD.

The Jay Electronica-produced cut - built on a few simple piano twinkles and no drum track - is by far the most left-of-center music the veteran Queens rapper has ever rhymed over. Calling himself “Nasty Nas-daq” and dropping oblique references to boxing greats and Huey Newton, Nas rhymes lines such as: “Bring back Arsenio/ hip-hop was aborted/ so Nas breathes life back into the embryo.”

The song’s a bold step for Nas, an MC continually caught between two mindsets - his artistic ambition and commercial obligation. Until a few months before this CD’s release, he dared to title the disc after the N-word. Despite initial backing from Def Jam honcho Antonio “L.A.” Reid, public outcry (The NAACP, Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton all rallied against the title) forced him to change the album’s name.

But Nas’s attitude hasn’t dulled. Though “Untitled” is a compelling yet uneven effort, he proves he’s still one of the hip-hop’s most eloquent and bitingly honest writers. On the booming first single “Hero,” he addresses the title change: “Still in musical prison, in jail for the flow/ Try telling Bob Dylan, Bruce, or Billy Joel/ They can’t sing what’s in their soul/ So ‘Untitled’ it is.”

As much as Nas decries being censored, he’s no fool either. Perhaps that’s why Nas has hedged his bets, couching some of his fired-up rhymes in radio-ready beats. The aforementioned anthem “Hero” is wedged between two other big productions with loud, full-bodied tracks and monster hooks. A nod to hustlers and gangstas, the Cool and Dre-helmed “Make the World Go Round” features Chris Brown, the Game and huge synths, while the grating soul-pop hook on “America” gives the track a solemn edge. Despite the overwrought beats, Nas offers lyrical gems. On the former, a cocky Nas spits: “I’m Alex Pushkin/ The black poetry-writing Russian.”

“Sly Fox,” a guitar-crunching head-banger produced by Dead Prez’s Stic.Man, rails largely against Bill O’Reilly and Fox News. Then there’s the bluesy, revolutionary fantasy “Testify,” before the album climaxes with the string-laden N-word song, on which Nas sounds hopeful: “Man, this history don’t acknowledge us/ We were scholars way before colleges.”

Given more judicious editing, that song should’ve been the album’s impactful closing salvo. Instead the disc continues, and the energy dips. The mediocre “Black President” juxtaposes a Tupac Shakur vocal sample with Nas’s Barack Obama endorsement (“I’m thinking I can trust this brother”).

At his best, Nas can be an insightful street disciple, cocky veteran MC, and rap’s political and cultural conscience. But with better album sequencing and less filler, “Untitled” could have been the commercial and ideological statement he was shooting for.

The Associated Press

The title is “Step Brothers.” You know, because there are two of them.

But Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly are essentially playing the same person, which is the movie’s fundamental, irreparable flaw.

As 40-year-olds who’ve never left home and are forced to share a bedroom when their parents get married, Ferrell and Reilly are stuck in the same state of arrested development. There’s no odd-couple tension, no witty banter, just a prolonged, painfully unfunny game of one-upmanship in which each actor is trying to outdo the other in one-note obnoxiousness. You wouldn’t want to spend two hours with one of these guys, much less both.

Sure, they display slight personality differences - Ferrell’s Brennan wears vintage T-shirts with Pablo Cruise or The Judds on them, while Reilly’s Dale prefers Yoda - but they’re cut from the same kitschy cloth. They look alike, they talk alike. They share the same interest in dinosaurs, martial arts, bad TV, worse music and above all, crass put-downs. (Most of them can’t be repeated here, which is fine, because they’re not exactly zingers anyway.)

They immediately hate each other, eventually become best friends and then hate each other all over again. But regardless of the status of their relationship, the humorously awkward chemistry these actors shared as teammates in “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby” is long gone, because the script makes no room for it. And that’s strange, because Ferrell co-wrote the screenplay with his old friend, director Adam McKay, with whom he collaborated on the NASCAR comedy. (Reilly shares a story-by credit here.)

Watching “Step Brothers,” though, it doesn’t take long to realize that their creative process consisted of sitting around, cracking each other up with adolescent gags, and then writing it all down. Whether the rest of the world will be doubled over with laughter seems irrelevant - and that insularity is ultimately alienating. (A couple of funny lines do pop up here and there.)

At the same time, many of the jokes are of the broad, physical variety and seemingly aimed at the lowest common denominator. Brennan and Dale routinely beat each other to a pulp with whatever is convenient: a shovel, a cymbal, a bike, their fists. Then once they reach a detente and team up to exact revenge on the school yard bullies who regularly torment Dale, they turn around and beat those kids to a pulp, which isn’t particularly inspired, either.

It’s not that any of this stuff is offensive, it’s just hackneyed and flat. You can practically feel the strain through the screen. There’s also the obligatory gross-out bodily humor, including Dale’s inability to keep his gas to himself during a job interview (hardy-har). And we won’t even begin to describe the, um, creative way Brennan uses a bath mat, or what he does to Dale’s prized drum kit.

Meanwhile, all Brennan’s mom, Nancy (Mary Steenburgen), and Dale’s dad, Robert (Richard Jenkins), can do is throw their hands up and sigh in exasperation. Often they scream back with expletives of their own - because in theory, it’s supposed to be shocking to hear dirty words flying from Steenburgen’s proper, Southern mouth. Both actors deserve better.

Ferrell and Reilly do, too. We know they’re capable of wildly inventive humor, of demonstrating a fearlessness in creating bizarre characters. “Step Brothers” doesn’t even begin to challenge either of them - it’s several steps down for them both.

The fan boy world has been buzzing about “The Dark Knight,” which hits theaters this weekend, since about, oh, the release of the last Batman movie in 2005.

“The comic book fan audience, they are so ready to go,” says Mike Robinson, a Lynchburg College pop culture professor and comic book enthusiast.

That excitement originates from the ending of “Batman Begins,” which foreshadowed the arrival of the Caped Crusader’s archnemesis, the Joker.

“It’s just, ‘Ohmigod, the Joker’s next,’” Robinson says about the scene, in which Batman turns over a playing card to reveal the Joker’s signature jester.

“People love the Joker. I don’t know why. He’s terrible, but we love him and think he’s hilarious.”

The character is most widely identified with Jack Nicholson, who played him in Tim Burton’s 1989 “Batman.” But the talk surrounding “Dark Knight” promised that Heath Ledger would be putting his own unique spin on the role and even predicted a possible Oscar nod for his work.

“It looks great. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that Heath Ledger is under (the Joker makeup),” Robinson says. “It doesn’t look like him.

“When Nicholson was the Joker … you saw (the character) as Nicholson. You had that sense that Nicholson is in there. With this, it’s, ‘Where’s Heath?’ He’s really creepy.”

The buzz reached a fever pitch when, sadly, Ledger died in January of an accidental drug overdose. What would Warner Bros., the studio behind the film, do?

After some debate, they went ahead with their original marketing plan, which included using Ledger’s eerily made-up Joker in promotional materials.

“If Heath Ledger had died last week, this would be a real problem,” Robinson says. “There’s been enough time and enough space (now). … I think it’s a good, safe distance.”

In today’s celebrity-obsessed climate, it’s entirely possible that an actor’s death will have an impact on any posthumous releases.

“The deaths of celebrities seem to create this outpouring,” says Robert Kolker, a media studies professor at the University of Virginia.

“There’s something about the attachment to celebrities, that feeling of awe at a life lived more fully or more crazily than our own.”

And when that life is finished, especially before its time, fans look for ways to honor the celebrity.

In some cases, a movie that would have otherwise tanked at the box office does well, buoyed by the fans who want to pay their last respects to a beloved actor or those who want to see the late actor’s onscreen swan song out of a general curiosity.

That happened with “Queen of the Damned,” which was released in 2002, less than a year after the death of star Aaliyah. It was widely panned by critics, but still opened at No. 1 at the box office - something many attribute to the R&B star’s loyal fan base.

“The Dark Knight” is a unique case because the film already has scores of people salivating over its release, and Ledger’s death has nothing to do with it.

“If it was a lesser-known superhero … I don’t know, maybe it would have picked the audience up because people would go for the curiosity factor,” Robinson says.

But it’s Batman. Versus the Joker. Two characters that Robinson says are eternally intertwined in comic book lore.

“Batman and the Joker, they change over time,” he says. “They shift over time, and they shift together.”

The Joker, especially, can continually be reinvented because he has no definitive backstory, Robinson says.

“He’s this weird, chaotic, elemental force,” Robinson says. “Because he’s a little more open as a character, we can accept different interpretations of (him).

“He’s not a one-note villain.”

In Burton’s “Batman,” for instance, the Joker is a former mobster who killed Bruce Wayne’s parents, and, later on, Batman causes his disfiguration. Robinson says that was made up for the film and did not come from the comic books.

When the Joker showed up in the first Batman comic book, there was no personal motive behind his devious ways.

“He desired to beat Batman, but in a very public fashion,” Robinson says. “It’s about attention. It’s about the public paying attention to him.”

“The Dark Knight” presents the character in much the same way. He just shows up in Gotham and starts wreaking havoc, with no real explanation.

After Ledger’s death, many speculated that stepping into the character’s demented shoes had contributed to his downward spiral.

“There was this whole attempt to suggest that the Joker had driven him insane, which was so weird,” Robinson says. “They wouldn’t do that with any other character. … I guess that just goes to show you how much we fear him.”

Other actors to star in posthumous releases

James Dean
Death: Sept. 30, 1955
Movies later released: ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ in 1955 and ‘Giant’ in 1956
Aftermath: In the wake of Dean’s death, executives at Warner Bros. worried that audiences wouldn’t want to see the late actor on the big screen. But both films were critical and commercial successes, and “Giant” scored Dean his second posthumous Oscar nomination (the first was for 1955’s “East of Eden”). “Rebel Without a Cause,” released less than a month after his death, went onto cement Dean’s place as an icon for rebellious teens everywhere.

Bruce Lee
Death: June 20, 1973
Movies later released: ‘Enter the Dragon’ in 1973, three weeks after his death, and ‘Game of Death’ in 1978
Aftermath: As rumors swirled about what caused Lee’s death (doctors say it was from swelling of the brain, others have speculated with any number of random theories, including a supposed curse on his family), ‘Enter the Dragon’ was a huge hit at the box office. Made modestly for $850,000, it grossed $25 million in the U.S. and $90 million worldwide, according to the Internet Movie Database (IMDB).

Brandon Lee
Death: March 31, 1993
Movie later released: ‘The Crow’ in 1994
Aftermath: Lee, the son of Bruce, died in an accident on the set of ‘The Crow’ when a prop gun malfunctioned and fatally wounded him. The footage of his death was destroyed without being developed, according to IMDB. Filmmakers completed shooting the movie using computer-generated imagery and a stunt double, and the film went on to became a cult hit.

Chris Farley
Death: Dec. 18, 1997
Movies later released: ‘Almost Heroes’ and ‘Dirty Work’ (a cameo) in 1998
Aftermath: Both films bombed at the box office. Farley’s death also affected another movie: ‘Shrek.’ He was originally supposed to provide the voice of the titular ogre and had already recorded some of the dialogue, according to IMDB. After he died, Farley was replaced by fellow ‘Saturday Night Live’ star Mike Myers.

Aaliyah
Death: Aug. 25, 2001
Movie later released: ‘Queen of the Damned’ in 2002
Aftermath: The R&B star had already finished shooting the movie, but filmmakers had to use her brother, Rashad, to re-record some of her dialogue, according to a BBC story about the movie. Critics hated it, but the film fared well at the box office - something many attribute to her loyal fan base, which also raised sales of her 2001 album almost 700 percent within a week of her death.

Phil Hartman
Death: May 28, 1998
Movie later released: ‘Small Soldiers’ in July 1998
Aftermath: Several scenes that included toys aiming their guns at Hartman’s character were cut from the movie, and a blooper of him ran after the credits with the words ‘For Phil.’

Adrienne Shelley
Death: Nov. 1, 2006
Movies later released: ‘Waitress,’ her directorial debut, in 2007
Aftermath: The film was a critical darling at the Sundance Film Festival, where it was bought by Fox Searchlight Pictures. It eventually grossed $18 million at the box office, impressive considering its $2 million budget.

Tupac Shakur
Death: Sept. 13, 1996
Movies later released: “Bullet” in October 1996, and “Gridlock’d” and “Gang Related” in 1997
Aftermath: “Bullet” was a direct-to-video release, and the other two didn’t do much at the box office. Shakur’s music, however, has continued to thrive after his death. Six albums of his music have been released posthumously, the most recent of which was 2006’s “Pac’s Life.”

John Ritter
Death: Sept. 11, 2003
Movie later released: ‘Bad Santa’ in November 2003
Aftermath: Filmmakers dedicated the movie, his last live-action role, in his memory.

Bela Lugosi
Death: Aug. 16, 1956
Movie later released: ‘Plan 9 from Outer Space’ in 1959
Aftermath: Director Ed Wood had only shot about two minutes of film with Lugosi before the actor died. Wood rewrote the script and hired a chiropractor, who looked nothing like Lugosi and was 2 feet taller. Wood had the stand-in cover his face with a cape during scenes.