Wendy R. Williams'
Theater Column |
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Well, this month
was my campy vampy musical month. I saw two musicals;
the newly closed Slut, The Musical and
still-running The Great American Trailer Park
Musical (Trailer has announced that
it is closing Sunday,December 5th.).
First, Slut. Slut,
produced by PennySeal Productions, was one of the
break-out musicals from the 2004 Fringe Festival.
It then moved to the off-Broadway American Theater
of Actors ( 314 West 54 th Street) where it was
produced by James Hammerstein Productions.
Here is a quote from the Slut
press release:
"He's young. He's straight. He's single. And
he's probably not gonna call. Finally,
a man - and a musical - with no cheesy lines or
lame excuses. Slut tells the hilarious
adventures of a motivated guy on a life-long quest
for one-night stands. This highly improbable, irreverent
journey comes with singing, dancing, screwing and
lots of raspberry margaritas. It's ' South Park'
meets the East Village,
'Peter Pan' meets the 21st century and boy meets
girl meets boy meets girl. Welcome to the fast-paced,
shamelessly honest and straight-up hysterical world
of Slut -- a musical without euphemisms.
What are you doing tonight?"
This show was a lot of fun, filled
with energetic cute songs and cast with great looking
talented actors. Of especial note was Jenn Collella,
of Urban Cowboy fame. That girl has some
set of pipes. And the subject matter was timely
– young urban singles who just want to screw
like old-fashioned bunnies. How au courant can you
get?
So why did it not make it? Most
likely it was due to that old real estate adage
about the three most important things about selling
a house: location; location; and location. This
play needed to play a downtown venue, preferably
one where they sell raspberry martinis and beer,
not just talk about them. It was simply lost in
the West Fifties. But hopefully it will have an
afterlife, touring college towns.
Slut had a great set (scenic design was
credited to Beowulf Borrit), a wall of beer bottles
and beer signs that perfectly complemented the show.
Slut was directed by Gordon Greenberg and
starred: Rich Affanato; Sara Chase; Jenn Collela;
Mary Faber; Harriet D. Foy; Andy Karl; David Josefsberg;
Kevin Pariseau; Jim Stanek; and Amanda Watkins.
For more information: http://www.slutthemusical.com/
Then on to The Great American
Trailer Park Musical. This show has a great
location, the terminally cool Dodger Stages. (What
a different four blocks and several million dollars
in renovations can make!) Dodger Stages, located
at 340 West 50th Street, has a utterly cool modern
loft-like décor, a great little lobby bar,
comfortable raked seating and modern (read lots
of stalls) bathrooms. Although it has yet to catch
on with the masses, it is a great place to see a
show – cool enough for New Yorkers, yet comfortable
enough for tourists who don’t quite "get"
what we New Yorkers are willing to put up with.
And Trailer is a hoot
of a musical. Set in a wonderfully campy 1950’s
style Florida trailer park called Armadillo Acres,
Trailer is blessed with a funny script,
campy songs and talented actors. And it is all there:
the stripper on the run; the phobic housewife; the
owner with a heart of gold; and (since this is
supposed to be Florida after all) the kidnapped
child.
Trailer is directed by
Betsy Kelso with Music and Lyrics by David Nehls
and choreography by Sergio Trjillo. The fun set
was credited to Derek McLane. Trailer stars:
Marya Grandy; Linda Hart; Shuler Hensley; Kaitlin
Hopkins;
Leslie Kritzer; Orfeh; and Wayne Wilcox.
Tickets are $75.00 and can be found at www.telecharge.com.
For more information, log onto: http://www.trailerparkmusical.com/
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