Home Coming Attractions Current Reviews Season Archives Links Contact
|
JUST IN TIME FOR SUPERBOWL |
|
Football:The Musical |
|
Grimaldi's has to be the smallest dinner theater setting I have ever seen, yet the agile cast still manages to create the atmosphere of a stage set as well as elementary musical theater numbers. The mythical AWFL ("If it's not AWFL, it's not football") has brought a new team to Phoenix, the Wallabys, owned by a tycoon of the same name who has just married an ex-stripper (well played by Rebecca Kalk). They are aiming for the Super Duper Bowl. But when Wallaby has a heart attack and dies, Flopsy Jetsam, his widow and heir, vows to get Joe Wyoming, a hunk of a player for her team by ordering them to lose every game and thus have the first pick in next year's draft. She also changes their name to the Hummingbirds and changes their team colors to chartreuse and pink. The others connected to the team are Quarterback Dash Upright (Matt Morgan), couplet spouting Cheerleader Bitzy Dreems (adorably played by Denise Kelleher), frenetic Executive Assistant Pilar Strunk -I never did figure out the pun in that one- (played nicely by Jori Dodge), Head Coach Knute Figgins (ably played by Charlie LeSueur) and Lineman Lumbo Drumm (hysterically brought to life by Garry Myers). They are all very upset by this turn of events but no one is upset when Flopsy is kidnapped and held for ransom. But the question for us in the audience is - which of this motley crew did the dirty deed? Along the way the audience is treated to a number of clever song parodies such as "AWFL" to the tune of YMCA (complete with air letters), "Welcome to Bad Football Arizona" to the tune of Hotel Califonia and "Everybody Sacks Somebody Sometime" to the tune of Dean Martin's trademark song. But by far the most clever parody was the song which was totally made up of almost every major football star's name. It is incredible that the three singers could remember all those names and spit them out so quickly. They actually did fluff the names once but kept right on singing - the show must go on, you know. While there were certainly no musical stars in the cast (and in one case the singer was actually off key), it was still fun to follow the clever songs. This is raw, down to earth tomfoolery, so don't expect great theater; but it is a pleasant evening of fun and camaraderie. The audience gets involved in many ways besides laughing. There is the traditional dance contest, reading of lines as reporters at a press conference, and a football throwing contest. One other high point was the interesting choreography particularly in such a small space. A couple of the numbers even boasted some provocative moves by Flopsy and Pilar (who transformed from a plain Jane to a sexpot before our eyes). Amazing what a little makeup and low neckline can do! And Kalk in a wonderful turnabout played a second role as Policewoman "Bernie" Fife, creating a totally different character physically and personality wise. I had to check my program to make sure it was really the same person. This was by no means a polished production, however, and as I said there were weaknesses in the cast as well as in the script. One thing in particular which was a shame was the denoument of the show. It is most important to have a very clever way of choosing who the guilty villain is and in this case, I was quite disappointed. I will not reveal any secrets but suffice to say, the ending left much to be desired. It might be wise to try a rewrite, Alexx, to match the ingenuity of the rest of the script. Even with a few faults, the show was a lot of fun and the Italian buffet (read pizza) was pretty good, so all you football fans might just get a kick out of the evening. The show plays through January at the two locations listed above, just in time for the Super Bowl. |