PICK! ASR Theater ~~ Lucky Penny Rocks The House With “Trailer Park Christmas Musical”

By Barry Willis

Welcome back to Armadillo Acres, North Florida’s premiere residential destination. Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions ushers in the holiday season with The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical, through December 17.

Familiar characters return from last summer’s kitsch extravaganza: trailer park trash-ettes Pickles, Linoleum, and Bad Ass Betty (Kristin Pieschke, Shannon Rider, and Sara Lundstrom, respectively).

“The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical” cast are rockin’ it, y’all! Photo credit Kurt Gonsalves/KMG Design.

Two other cast members from that show return in new roles: Taylor Bartolucci as Darlene Seward, a Christmas-hating curmudgeon, and Skyler King as Rufus, the trailer park’s well-intentioned but goofy handyman, who’s annoyed Darlene by installing a community Christmas tree too close to her abode.

 … There’s a whole lot of trouble brewing in the trailer park as Christmas approaches …

We also get to enjoy some authentic redneck antics from Jackie Boudreaux (director Barry Martin), the cowboy-hatted owner of a pancake house called “Stax” pandering to lustful locals. The eatery employs Armadillo Acres girls as waitresses, who call it “IHOP meets Hooters.” They also delight in tormenting Darlene by pronouncing her family name as “C-word.”

The play’s director, Barry Martin as cowboy-hatted Jackie Boudreaux, at work. Photo credit Kurt Gonsalves/KMG Design.

Darlene is contentious with her trailer-mates from the beginning, but an electric shock prompts a twelve-day case of amnesia, during which time she forgets that she hates the holidays. And Linoleum has almost forgotten her husband Earl, a convicted killer executed by the state of Florida (he was on death row when we last checked in). She now wears dangling from her neck an amulet containing some of his ashes, but she’s clearly ready to move on.

There’s a whole lot of trouble brewing in the trailer park as Christmas approaches, most of it propelled by a hard-rocking band led by Debra Chambliss in an alcove above the stage. David Nehls’ infectious music spans rock and country genres—the cast are all superb singers—with many tunes echoing classic bad-taste musical comedies such as Little Shop of Horrors. Bartolucci’s tacky costumes are outrageous fun, as is the frenetic choreography by Alex Gomez.

Good times and great music in Napa! Photo credit Kurt Gonsalves/KMG Design.

No Christmas-theme production would be complete without references to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, and Betsy Kelso’s script doesn’t disappoint. Trailer Park includes ghosts of Christmas past, present, and future; an aggressive nay-sayer, and a mean-spirited capitalist oppressor (Boudreaux) who threatens to bulldoze the entire complex on Christmas Eve so he can build a megastore in its place.

      • Will disaster be averted?
      • Will Armadillo Acres survive?
      • Will its residents return to more-or-less peaceful coexistence?

The outcome won’t be revealed here! For that you’ll have to get one of the few remaining tickets. The December 17 closing performance of The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical is “100% sold out” according to Barry Martin, so hurry up and grab what’s left.

You’ll be glad you did.

-30-

 

NorCal Aisle Seat Review Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: [email protected]

 

ProductionThe Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical
Written byBetsy Kelso
Music & LyricsDavid Nehls
Directed byBarry Martin
Producing CompanyLucky Penny Productions
Production DatesThru June 24th
Production AddressLucky Penny Community Arts Center
1758 Industrial Way
Napa, CA 94558
Websitewww.luckypennynapa.com
Telephone(707) 266-6305
Tickets$22-$45
Reviewer ScoreMax in each category is 5/5
Overall4/5
Performance4/5
Script4/5
Stagecraft4/5
Aisle Seat Review Pick?YES!

PICK! ASR Theater ~~ Trashy Treasure: Lucky Penny’s “The Great American Trailer Park Musical”

By Barry Willis

The vast underbelly of American culture gets hilariously gutted in The Great American Trailer Park Musical at Napa’s Lucky Penny Productions through June 24.

Welcome to Armadillo Acres, a mobile home community in the town of Starke, Florida, a place where cheap beer, flimsy housing, and low-budget/low IQ entertainment combine in a toxic froth, where all things inconceivably tacky are a way of life.

…another Lucky Penny winner that could easily play to sold-out houses all summer long…

Lucky Penny’s10th anniversary of a production first staged in 2012 at Santa Rosa’s 6th Street Playhouse, this Trailer Park features five original cast members. Comic genius Daniela Innocenti-Beem shines as “Bad Ass Betty,” mother hen to a brood of spunky but unlucky residents, including the agoraphobic Jeannie (Julianne Bradbury) who struggles mightily to step outside her door; Jeannie’s toll-taker husband Norbert (Mark Bradbury, an astounding theatrical chameleon); Pickles (Kirstin Pieschke), suffering from “hysterical pregnancy;” and the lusty Linoleum (Shannon Rider), whose husband is on death row in a Florida penitentiary.

His ultimate fate hasn’t diminished her enthusiasm for life’s fundamental pleasures—she coos with delight when retrieving her latest copy of “North Florida Prison Wife Digest” with a feature story about spicing up conjugal visits.

“The Great American Trailer Park” Musical ensemble at work.

Into their midst comes a fetching stripper named Pippi (Taylor Bartolucci) who immediately arouses the attention of Norbert—and the suspicions of female neighbors. Later we meet the gun-waving, Magic Marker-sniffing redneck Duke (Skyler King), Pippi’s volatile estranged husband who’s tracked her down with the intention of reclaiming what he thinks is his. A marvelous plot twist involving Jeannie and Norbert won’t be revealed here!

Backed by Justin Pyle’s hard-driving four-piece band high above stage right, the show is a wild celebration of life on the other side of the tracks—the subject of the first song-and-dance production. Composer David Nehls’ songs are upbeat, engaging, and unlike in many contemporary musicals, have actual melodies that propel really clever lyrics right into the hearts of a very receptive audience. Most songs—not all—are delivered by the trio of Betty, Linoleum, and Pickles in a pastiche that recalls the doo-wop girls of Little Shop of Horrors. Staci Arriaga’s intentionally goofy choreography is the perfect reinforcement.

Act One closes with Jeannie’s dream sequence—a spoof of Jerry Springer-type televised fare to which she’s addicted. Innocenti-Beem is ideal as the host of the show-within-a-show. The song “The Great American TV Show” manages in short order to skewer everything not otherwise included in the all-encompassing script by Betsy Kelso.

Act Two opens with “Flushed Down the Pipes,” a fatalistic anthem that segues into “Storm’s A-Brewin’ “—an acknowledgement of Florida reality, where there’s a massive electrical storm nearly every afternoon. True fact (a Midwestern phrase also spoken in Florida): the state has the nation’s highest rate of lightning deaths, most of which take place on golf courses—proof that residents of America’s dangling appendage are too dim to come in out of the rain…

(L-to-R) Innocenti-Beem, Pieschke, Rider, J. Bradbury at work at Lucky Penny Productions.

Director/set designer Barry Martin has concocted both a perfectly wince-inducing neighborhood and a lively bunch of twisted residents to fill it, with antics that will have you laughing for days. Martin confessed post-show that having grown up in the Ozarks, he’s on especially intimate terms with the show’s characters.

For those who can’t get enough home-grown lowbrow culture, some of the show’s essential themes also figure into The Legend of Georgia McBride and the regrettably too-short TBS series Claws.

The Great American Trailer Park Musical is scheduled for a Christmas season revival this year, and tickets are disappearing quickly. They’re also selling briskly for the current production—we can only hope that it enjoys an extended run. It’s another Lucky Penny winner that could easily play to sold-out houses all summer long.

-30-

Aisle Seat Review Executive Editor Barry Willis is a member of the American Theatre Critics Association and president of the SF Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle. Contact: [email protected]

 

ProductionThe Great American Trailer Park Musical
Written byBetsy Kelso
Music & LyricsDavid Nehls
Directed byBarry Martin
Producing CompanyLucky Penny Productions
Production DatesThru June 24th
Production AddressLucky Penny Community Arts Center
1758 Industrial Way
Napa, CA 94558
Websitewww.luckypennynapa.com
Telephone(707) 266-6305
Tickets$33-$43
Reviewer ScoreMax in each category is 5/5
Overall4/5
Performance4/5
Script4/5
Stagecraft4/5
Aisle Seat Review Pick?YES!