Both Salt Lake Acting Company, with one of its popular "cabaret seating" shows, and Desert Star Playhouse, which serves ample amounts of puns and pizza to family audiences, have opened zany comedies for the holidays.
At SLAC, theatergoers will find "Salt Lake Salt Lake: Utah Tour '93," a tune-filled revue poking fun at local foibles, while DSP is reviving its hit show from last season, "A Christmas Carol, Part 2."- AT SALT LAKE ACTING COMPANY, I got my first big treat right inside the door, where I was greeted by a smiling, upbeat Jean Roberts, one of the city's most courageous ladies.
Directed by Charles Lynn Frost, this second go-around for "Salt Lake Salt Lake" has a small cast, some mighty big voices and two hours of biting, topical humor.
Not only has the humor been updated (with playwrights Richard Jewkes, Laurie Johnson and Ron Van Woerden obviously kept busy sorting through newspaper clippings of Salt Lake and Utah stories the past year), but the production itself has some nifty new elements.
Lottie and Buster's "Siegel Tours" bus has been retrofitted with television monitors - so the tourists (that's us . . . in the audience) get to see 11 additional performers in a variety of televised news and "infomercial" spoofs as well as the action on stage.
The TV spots range from Karen Trunnell portraying Roseanne Arnold doing a back-handed promotion for Utah tourism ("Me and Tom recommend a trip to Utah . . . to dump your grandma at the state line . . . ") to a "special report" newscast explaining the LDS Church's various methods of disciplinary action ("Fifty Ways to Lose a Member").
But this last segment notwithstanding, "Salt Lake Salt Lake" is not into "Mormon bashing." It takes good-natured jibes at the city and region all across the board - politicians, fads, local celebrities, and Utah's strange laws.
"Follow the Unwritten Code" (sung and danced to "Follow the Yellow Brick Road" from "The Wizard of Oz"), dances around the state's awkward liquor laws, while "Tomorrow" (from "Annie"), is the hilarious, behind-the-scenes look at Sen. Robert Bennett's prototype for the Franklin Day Planner, found gathering dust on a window ledge of one landmark on the tour - the vandalized Bennett Paint Building on 300 West just off 2100 South. Bob Baker is a hoot as a conehead version of Bennett, huckstering the advantages of the famous organizer.
One notation in Bennett's own book: "If Larry gets basketball arena, go after baseball stadium."
One of the best scenes was when Lottie and Buster (Karen Nielsen and Duane Stephens) haul their passengers over to the Westerner club for a night of line dancing, with Jenifer Pope as instructor.
Other highlights:
- A stop at the soon-to-be-razed Salt Palace for a quick jaunt through the "Armageddon Preparedness and Family Values Expo '93." (Baker does a great impersonation of "Bo Gutz.")
- Sandy City's Centennial, borrowing tunes from Rodgers & Hammerstein for "We Love Living Here in Sandy" (to the tune of "June Is Bustin' Out All Over") and about the joys of "Living in Sandy" (to the tune of "Getting to Know You").
- Some poignant moments when Buster reminisces about his days as a popcorn and peanut vendor at the old Derk's Field.
- Even a plug for the ailing performing arts (which, for SLAC, is frightfully close to home), depicting representatives of the various arts groups as begging for money in Pioneer Park.
In addition to the cast members already mentioned, K.C. Eldridge was fine as Richard Eyre (in a spoof on "Family Feud"), Brenda Sue Cowley returning as Mayor Deedee Corradini, and Kori Ramsey as Susie McCarty emceeing a revue of the latest Deseret Industries' fashions.
One segment did detract from the rest of the show. This was an argument between Lottie and Buster over him wanting to sqaunder his casino winnings on a massage. It just wasn't that funny.
But the TV monitors helped moved the show along, allowing scenery and costumes to be changed while the audience was enjoying radio personalities Jon and Dan (as Don and Jan), Laurie Johnson pushing "Family Vans" and Rod Decker hosting a hilarious "Take Deux" debate between John Prince and Richard "Gadgets" Prospero, covering "the whole shooting match" of reasons for Utah's gang problems.
The show even got a little dig in at drama critics, having Jeff Olson and Marcia Dangerfield portray "Yours Truly" and rival Nancy Melich in an alleged weekly show called "Fiddler Talk," a sort of Siskel/Ebert look at the most current of Utah's 200-plus "Fiddler on the Roof" productions.
Kudos to accompanist Kevin Mathie, musical director Ron Van Woerden, choreographer Marilyn Montgomery; set, lighting and costume designers Cory Dangerfield, Kiyono Oshiro-Streich and Kevin Myhre, and videographer Tom Cowan, along with wig designer Michael Adamson.
Financially, Salt Lake Acting Company is far from being out of the woods, but "Salt Lake Salt Lake" should attract a solid audience.
Sensitivity rating: Some profanity; some people might be offended by jibes at Utah mores, but there's little objectionable material.
- JUST AS FUNNY and even faster paced is "A Christmas Carol, Part 2, or A Dickens of a Christmas" across town in Murray.
This, too, is locally written (by Bob Bedore) and has an eight-member cast.
The time is three years after the other "Carol" has ended - and Scrooge, played to the hilt by Ken Grazier, is doing such a great job of "keeping Christmas in my heart," he's become a patsy for every scheming con man in London.
Plus, unbeknownst to kindly old Eb, Bob Cratchit and his growing little boy, Tiny Tim (Bob Bedore and Mike Westenskow) are embezzling money right and left and plotting to take over the firm.
Remember, this IS musical melodrama, and writer Bedore has given the audience plenty to both boo and cheer about. (Early on, a sneering Bob Cratchit informs the audience,"Don't worry about me, I can handle my boos.")
For this humorous trip through another of Scrooge's memorable Christmas eves, the ghosts could have stepped right out of a Carol Burnett sketch. Marley's Ghost is now a real party animal, somewhat miffed that he's got to make another house call at Scrooge's bedside, and the Ghost of Christmas Past is a loopy Valley Girl, equipped this time with a wonderful remote control handset so she can zap right to the scenes out of Scrooge's past (and even fast-forward or reverse if she overshoots).
The Ghost of Christmas Present is a "temporary," hauled in at the last moment - and none too pleased, and the Ghost of Christmas Future is a reject from an MTV music video.
Director Jansen Davis has given the show a fun-in-cheek frenzy, with a cast of great performers. In addition to those already mentioned, Barbie Christensen, Ron Johnson, Russell Peacock and Kimberlee Hart portray not only the ghosts, but sundry other roles as well, with Melissa Bridge Porter as Belle - Scrooge's long-lost love, now widowed and returning to London to invest her sizeable inheritance.
Naturally, there are a variety of pitfalls and pratfalls along the way to the happy ending.
The Desert Star's post-show olios have a "Home for the Holidays" theme, allowing the actors to shine in solos and ensemble numbers. Highlights include "I'm Gettin' Nuttin' for Christmas" with Bedore, Christensen and Westenskow (done up like a "Triplets" take-off from the old "Bandwagon" movie), Kimberlee Hart belting "I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, and the entire ensemble recounting the disastrous (and hilarious) "Twelve Days After Christmas."
"A Christmas Carol, Part 2" is what Desert Star Playhouse does best - fast-paced and wholesome fun for the whole family. The only place you might go wrong is waiting too long to get tickets. Last season the run was sold out. It could easily do the same thing this year.