Assisted Living: The Musical, now at the Playhouse At Westport Plaza, is more fun than you might expect. Yes, some of the jokes are tasteless, a few of those qualifying as what I (retired RN) call “nurse humor”. Many more are downright bawdy, but somehow it’s no chore to go with the flow that Rick Compton and Betsy Bennett, authors and performers of the show, create.
It’s about Pelican Roost, a “full-service retirement home” that seems to be in Florida and the eighteen residents they portray. One of the great advantages the show has is maturity – the authors are not kids poking fun at their elders but full-grown adults, even by the criteria of the mythical Pelican Roost. Another is that it acknowledges that sex doesn’t stop at a given age. In any given St. Louis audience, the odds seem good that someone will be bothered by that. Nevertheless, the opening-night crowd, packed with people who would be eligible to move into the Roost, didn’t seem to have any trouble at all with jokes about Cialis, Viagra and related activities. In fact, a medley about Viagra toward the end of the show was an utter delight.
So don’t expect subtlety, with songs like “A Ton-and-a-Half of Cadillac Steel” and “Vernon’s Burnin’ Passion”. Just be prepared to occasionally hear someone singing harmony despite there being only one person onstage, a little disconcerting at first. At the keyboard is Jeremy Franklin Goodman who does a fine job. And a minor note, so to speak, pre-show music is just what the Pelican Roost-ers would choose, early Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, that sort of thing.
If Compton and Bennett aren’t having a great time, they’re surely fine actors. This is a romp from start to finish. It may even take the edge off the fear of growing old.
Assisted Living: The Musical
through August 11
The Playhouse at Westport
Westport Plaza
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