"The Great American Trailer Park Musical" will never be done at Opera Theatre. Of course not. With a name like that, though, one ought to be entitled to a good romp. And that's what Dramatic License Productions is delivering to audiences.
It's not without flaws, but it's bawdily funny without being totally tasteless, and, more intriguingly, manages to treat its characters with some respect. I may have had more experience with mobile home parks than some people. At one point in my life I came very close to having to live in a mobile home. I've had family members living in them. One of my oldest friends created a dwelling space in his that came amazingly close to elegant. So it was interesting to see how director Alan Knoll has given these folks, despite being caricatures to varying degrees, some dignity.
They're not costumed by Lisa Hazelhorst as something out of the Beverly Hillbillies or Dogpatch. I don't believe I saw any heads full of hair rollers, and the only bedroom slippers were on the agoraphobic housewife who couldn't get out her front door. The residents of Armadillo Acres are clean and tidy, folks just trying to get along.
Director Knoll is better known in these parts as one of the best comic actors around. His touch is apparent throughout the show. – it's clearly Knoll droll. The timing is great, the delivery smooth. He gets great work from his cast, beginning with Kim Furlow, who's lived at the trailer park for decades and buried her husband there. There's no fourth wall here; Furlow's character Betty talks to us throughout the show. She and her two sidekicks Linn (because her name is Linoleum) played by Stephanie Merritt and Pickles (because she thinks she is having a false pregnancy), Stephanie Benware, are a Greek chorus to the action.
The agoraphobe, Jamie Lynn Eros, and her husband the toll booth collector, Jeffrey Pruett, are a great pair. Both have good voices, and so does the third member of this love triangle, Leah Stewart. In fact, everyone sings well. However, as is often the case at many of the smaller venues in town, the problem is the audio levels. The band overrides the vocals much of the time. In a show where the lyrics are presumably part of the amusement, it's particularly annoying.
Still, the musical numbers can be a lot of fun, in part thanks to choreographer Zachary Stefaniak. The close of Act I begins with Furlow appearing a la Mae West, complete with chorus boy, continues with the Greek chorus girls looking and moving like the women from Mamma Mia!, and ends up with the whole cast, including Pruett in a John Travolta Stayin' Alive suit and set of moves. Over the top? Of course.
An evening of froth and silliness. The world has been grim lately; here's a nice change.
The Great American Trailer Park Musical
through September 21
Dramatic License Productions
Chesterfield Mall (upper level near Sears)
www.dramaticlicenseproductions.org/
636-821-1746