St. Louis Eats and Drinks

Hand to God

The very disquieting St. Louis Actors’ Studio’s Hand to God will probably be the subject of debate next year when the Critics Circle discusses whether it’s a drama or a comedy. Ibdb.com calls it a comedy, but I’m glad I didn’t have to make that decision for them. There are laughs, sometimes uncomfortable ones, but it’s far from what one reviewer in another city called a “madcap comedy”.

Smallish Protestant church of uncertain denomination is trying to start a puppet ministry. (We can call that the first off-kilter thing about the play; if it’s a puppet ministry, who’s really running things? Sorry, political joke.) The responsibility has been given to Margery (Colleen Backer), who’s trying to wrangle three unmotivated teenagers, including her own son Jason (Mitchell Henry-Eagles). The other two are Jessica (Phoebe Richards), who vaguely reminds one of the long-departed-but-still-missed Lisa Loopner character of Saturday Night Live fame, and Timmy (Josh Rotker), a hulking, somewhat older-seeming fellow who’s parked there because his mom is at an AA meeting in another part of the building.

It all seems so…wholesome, even though Margery knows nothing about puppetry and is leafing through a book for answers. But the kids are anywhere from reluctant to openly defiant and she’s clearly pretty fragile. Pastor Greg (Eric Dean White) comes by and insists she can do this, and he’ll do whatever he can do help in any way. He’s there for her, he says.

Only Jessica and Justin have actually finished their puppets. Jason has even named his Tyrone, and there’s a cute-but-awkward scene where Justin and Tyrone do part of the old Abbott and Costello “Who’s on First” routine to impress Jessica. That’s when we begin to realize that Henry-Eagles has this two-voices/two-characters/one-person thing down pretty pat. It’s also when Tyrone begins to show that he has a mind of his own – or is that Justin being brave behind a facade? Meanwhile Margery tries to have a talk with Timmy with dramatic results.

Whether Tyrone really is Justin’s id or something entirely different is one of the things we’re left to ponder here. There are enough dramas about wicked puppets that it’s not hard to make the leap early on in the show. We’re left thinking about that and the nature of evil. Sure. It’s a comedy. Right?

Good ensemble work overall, with Backer and Henry-Eagles leading the way. White’s Pastor Greg is just fumbling his way along rather than joining in on the creepiness; we already have enough as it is. Rotker is wonderfully menacing and Richards holds her own in the scene with her puppet and Tyrone. Director Andrea Urice has put together a fine crew off-stage, too, including Patrick Huber with a clever set design, Steve Miller’s light design, and Robin Weatherall masterminding the sound.

One’s pleasure at this show will depend on tolerance for off-color humor and for another story about puppets gone wild. Some folks say it’s brilliant, but I’m just not there.

 

Hand to God

through April 24

St. Louis Actors’ Studio

The Gaslight Theater

358 N. Boyle

314-458-2978

stlas.org

Hairspray

Did anyone in St. Louis do the Madison when they were growing up?

I was thrust back into my somewhat misspent youth when in Scene 5 of Hairspray, which just opened at the Fox, television disc jockey and would-be Dick Clark, Corny Collins is emceeing a high school dance and announces the dance, saying it began in Baltimore, where the show, and the film from whence it came, is set. (Well, it would, of course; it was a John Waters, the high priest of all things Bawlamer.)

I’d never run into it until I was abruptly thrown into the adult world at an air force base in New England and saw it at a service club dance. I never saw it anywhere else, but it stuck with me because it was un-partnered, like line dancing – and in its basic form was simple enough that even I could do it after watching a few minutes. Nobody was doing the Madison in outstate Missouri in 1962, which is the year Hairspray takes place. Fifteen years later, the only person I ever met who remembered it had gone to high school in Mobile, AL.

In the script, the aforementioned Corny Collins claims it’s a product of Baltimore; Wikipedia says otherwise, crediting it to Columbus, OH, but the Wiki Talk agrees there’s disagreement. No one, of course, expects historical authenticity in a musical comedy. It’s just part of the lighthearted collection of era-specific references that are sprinkled through the show. Some of those flew over the heads of the delightfully young audience on opening night, with plenty of under-21s and even more under-40s, always a good sign for the continuing health of the theatre arts.

Surely by now you know the story – pudgy, slightly rebellious teenager longs to appear on a local after-school-dance-party TV show. Mother refuses permission, teen makes it on the show only to announce on-air that she’d like to make the monthly Negro Day obsolete and just have kids of any color dancing. Chaos ensues.

The teenager, named Tracy Turnblad, is Niki Metcalf, having a whale of a good time in this high-energy role. Her mother Edna, played by Andrew Levitt, is more sprightly than some interpretations of the role, and we realize that Edna probably wasn’t all that old when she had Tracy. Her pop, Christopher Swan’s take on Wilbur Turnblad, seems to be having a whale of a good time being uxorious. (Look it up.)

Tracy’s nemesis is Amber Von Tussle. The ultimate Mean Girl/Queen Bee is played by O’Fallon, IL, native Kaelee Albritton, who carries off Amber’s venomous attacks with glee, and even manages a particularly amazing wig without batting an eye. Amber’s mom Velma, Addison Garner, who was clearly Amber’s role model, turns out to be the producer of the Corny Collins Show, giving her extra leverage to keep Tracy and her multiracial pals out. Sandie Lee appears as Motormouth Maybelle, the mother of one of her friends, and a leader in the Black community, a strong woman played with more dignity than the character’s name implies.

A fun score, even for people too young to remember the earlier years of rock and roll, and energetic choreography. Even the costumes hit the right note, being close to the way it really looked.

So much fun and lots of good work.

 

Hairspray

through April 9

The Fox Theatre

527 N. Grand

www.fabulousfox.com/