"The Great American Trailer Park Musical"

Theatre review
"The Great American Trailer Park Musical" for Cortland Repertory Theatre
The Ithaca Journal
August 29, 2007
722 words

"CRT's ‘Trailer Park Musical' offers brash fun"

full text here

CRT's ‘Trailer Park Musical' offers brash fun
By Mark Tedeschi
Special to The Journal

With a title like “The Great American Trailer Park Musical,” you might expect Cortland Repertory Theatre's sixth and final production of the year to be full of shameless stereotypes, offbeat satire and borderline offensive characters delivering a borderline tasteless story.

You'd be right on all counts — but none will stop you from thoroughly enjoying every minute of it.

Nearly as tender as it is funny, “Trailer Park Musical” (directed and choreographed by Bert Bernardi, now in his third CRT season) treads on ground yet unseen in this season's lineup, and the zany, brash spectacle is a fantastic way to close the season.

David Nehls (music and lyrics) and Betsy Kelso (book) wrote “Trailer Park Musical,” which first played at the New York Music Theatre Festival in 2004 and ran Off-Broadway in 2005. Three women narrate the story: Betty (Doreen Barnard), the remarkably versatile leader of the trio; Linoleum or “Lin” (Erica Livingston), the uncouth jokester named for the surface on which she was born; and Pickles (Caitlin Maloney), the dense young woman who always thinks she's pregnant and brags about dating a cosmopolite — “He likes foreign beers and cheese that smells like urine!”

The show is filled with lines like that one; surprisingly, the biggest laughs come from jokes involving vulgarity, and the actors' fearless delivery of what would normally be considered rude is what makes the dialogue so amusing.

“This Side of the Tracks,” the catchy opening number of a show filled with radiant music (Ethan Deppe, music director) sets the scene: Armadillo Acres, a trailer park in Starke, Fla., where, as Lin laments, “You'd trade your left tit for a dip in the pool.” Norbert (Scott Wakefield), a gentle toll collector, tries to convince his agoraphobic wife Jeannie (Katherine Proctor) to step outside of their home by the time they reach their impending 20th anniversary.

Norbert soon finds himself at a strip club, where his new, sultry neighbor, Pippi (Amy Halldin) puts on a show (“The Buck Stops Here”). He inadvertently charms her, and the narrators sing that “It Doesn't Take a Genius” to figure out what happens next: Norbert falls for the vivacious stripper as his unaware wife tries to overcome her fear. Act One closes with the epic, hilarious number, “Storm's A-Brewin',” featuring madcap choreography, shiny costumes (Jimmy Johansmeyer, costume designer), and a disco ball (John Horan, lighting designer).

The second act is shorter, but even more vibrant than the first. “Roadkill” follows Duke (Andy Moss), Pippi's crazy, magic-marker-sniffing ex-boyfriend, from Oklahoma City to Starke. He confronts her, Jeannie confronts Norbert, and in the moving climax, all must “make like a nail and press on.”

Four talented musicians (Ethan Deppe, Dillon Kondor, Shannon Cockbill and Matt Pond) provide instrumentation for the musical numbers. “The Great American TV Show,” a tribute to the tacky Sally/Jenny/Ricki-esque morning talk shows, particularly showcases theirs and the singers' musicianship.

At a few brief moments, the jokes abrade, but not because they offend; there's a bit about flan that goes on too long and an obligatory Britney Spears potshot (come on, she's too easy a target). But that's to say nothing of the performances, which are all airtight. Accents have been consistently well-executed in CRT shows this summer, but the intense, spot-on drawl the actors put on in “Trailer Park Musical” stands out, especially during songs (credit for crispness also goes to Don Tindall's sound design).

The clever look of the show is due in large part to Jo Winiarski's set design, which is filled with crafty props: flowerpots made of tires, an old Chevy grille, Christmas lights, cinder blocks, milk crates and a tiny pink flamingo — possibly a subtle nod to John Waters and the memorable steps he took toward glorifying, in a hyperbolically caricatured way, trailer park lifestyle.

It's that sort of depiction I was initially afraid could make for shaky subject matter, but after “Trailer Park Musical” immediately and humorously addresses the stereotypes, I realized my worry was unwarranted. The characters are content with their lives and not afraid to joke about outsiders' misconceptions.

At its heart, “Trailer Park Musical” is a story about finding happiness in unlikely places; on the surface, it's a comedy highlighting the coarse lifestyle found only in locales like Armadillo Acres.

That solid combination definitely makes CRT's last show worth seeing.

“The Great American Trailer Park Musical” runs at CRT through Saturday. Visit www.cortlandrep.org or call (800) 427-6160 for more information.

"Almost, Maine"

Theatre review
"Almost, Maine" for Cortland Repertory Theatre
The Ithaca Journal
August 16, 2007
674 words

"CRT celebrates love's otherworldly qualities"

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CRT celebrates love's otherworldly qualities
By Mark Tedeschi
Special to The Journal







Cortland Repertory Theatre's “Almost, Maine” begins with a bundled-up couple, Ginette and Pete, surrounded by starlit snowdrifts, sitting on a bench as far apart as they can. Their dialogue is sparse and timid.

In the next scene, a man named East meets a woman named Glory who's wandering around his yard and tells her, “I think I love you.” She asks if that's really true, and he candidly admits, “At first sight, yeah.”

At the outset, these two simple excerpts bare the heart that beats steadily throughout “Almost, Maine”: a celebration of love's ethereality.

Written by John Cariani (best known for playing Motel in the 2004 Broadway revival of “Fiddler on the Roof”) and directed by Bill Kincaid (a five-season CRT vet), “Almost, Maine” consists of 11 vignettes in two acts, interspersed with acoustic musical interludes, thanks to sound designer Don Tindall, over a pantomiming couple's up-and-down relationship as they rearrange Jim Bumgardner's scenery. Each scene, beginning at 9 p.m. in an unorganized township in Northern Maine known as “Almost,” offers ruminations on love and the expansive list of related topics: friendship, dating, marriage, breaking up, alcohol, shooting stars and misplaced footwear.

There are only six players in the production, counting the faceless scene-changers Gregory Trimmer and Lindsey Zaroogian. The other actors — Molly Pope, Colin Wasmund, Dana Bennison, and Dustin Charles — can't hide their eagerness to tackle the unique opportunity of playing several different characters in the same show; they explore the varied dynamics that come with different couplings. (That includes an unexpected same-sex pairing in a light piece that involves literally “falling” in love.) The acting is credible all-around — including the “jeezum crow” Maine accents — but Charles' natural consistency gives an air of gravity to potentially tacky lines like “I go away so I can know where I am for a second.”

Some of the other vignettes depict a woman (Pope) fascinated with a man (Wasmund) who can't feel physical pain; another woman (Bennison) who dumps colorful pillowcases on her boyfriend's (Charles's) floor and repeatedly demands, “All the love I gave to you? I want it back!”; a man who faces scolding from his wife (Charles and Bennison again) for mistakenly wishing on a planet instead of a star; a woman (Bennison) who returns to her ex's (Wasmund's) house to answer his years-old and two snowboarding buddies (Pope and Charles) who begin to confront the fact that their feelings for each other may be more than platonic.

Most of these stories are blithe, at least at first glance, but some of them end in sheer heartbreak. Seconds before each impending reconciliation, whether whimsical or weighty, the emerald flicker of aurora borealis appears in the background, courtesy of John Horan's excellent lighting design. In the outdoor scenes, the blues bouncing off piles of snow combined with Jimmy Johnsmeyer's sweater-and-parka costumes had me, once the show ended, reaching for a jacket that wasn't there.

A few minor quibbles: some of the 0shorts' endings finish too melodramatic for the amount of character development a vignette allows, and although the actors deliver their lines crisply, the dialogue is occasionally hit-or-miss.

Cariani frequently uses repetition for comedic effect, but with that technique, there can be a fine line between effective and tiring.

Those misfires are on the surface; the beauty of “Almost, Maine” lies deeper.

The stories relish in awkwardness (“There's so much sky here!” followed by “Used to be a potato farm.”), absurdity (“Ironing boards are the opposite of God.”), and nuance (about a hidden-picture painting: “You gotta try not to look at it. You gotta trick it.”).

All are qualities of love that benefit from a subtle but complex investigation; “Almost, Maine” offers it in addition to its outer shell of joyful jocularity.

Seeing “Almost, Maine” will indeed make a good date, but that certainly doesn't restrict its enjoyability. The pieces are so authentic, if you do see it with someone special, you might find that the ensuing conversation could fit right into the show as a final vignette.

“Almost, Maine” runs through Aug 18. For more information, go to www.cortlandrep.org.