There was a guy in the audience Friday night who had obviously been overserved and who thought it would be funny to make some mumbling wisecracks every few minutes or so.
The cast of "The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical" at Theatre Unchained soldiered onward with their comedy trying to ignore the wisecracker.
Unfortunately, the drunk was the only thing funny about this Christmas show, one that challenged me to figure out what the story was about as I also accepted the challenge of staying awake.
It’s hard to figure out just where to start with this whole thing.
The story is so trite. Trailer park. Drunks. Sluts. Dead people. Poor people. The wily and evil rich guy. Dumb chicks. Rugged guy in love. Trash (people and things).
We have a girl who hates Christmas, then gets shocked and loves Christmas, and then gets shocked back and is angry at everyone and in the end we all live happily ever after.
This might be funny, if it was funny.
Theatre Unchained has mounted two wonderful shows this season, "Carrie: the Musical" and "The Addams Family Musical." This one doesn’t come close to those two.
"Trailer Park" is a musical, about the dumbest musical you could imagine. If you put a bunch of sixth grade boys in a room, gave them a pencil, some paper and a piano, this is the kind of thing they might come up with.
I’m all in favor of bathroom humor, and I like the whole country thing. Give me a drawl and a couple of girls in short skirts, and I can usually find something funny in the whole thing.
This one got off on a horrible foot and never recovered.
There is a lot of exposition in this play. That means one of the actors talks directly to the audience to explain what’s going on. It’s a mark of an amateur production when you have too much exposition. The exposition in this play belonged to an actor named Theresa Drews, who played the matriarch of this penned up slice of life.
This play has been running for a while now, but it seemed like it was the first night of rehearsal for Drews. She flubbed lines. It took her forever to say something when it was time to say something. If there is a class in how to teach stereotypical acting, she could be a full professor.
She is not alone in this mess. No audience should be subjected to this kind of thing, especially at Christmas when all we want is a funny, warm and homey story.
The shame of this is really that there were at least a couple of people on this stage who had presence and who looked like they had promise.
Kendall Iris played Darlene the bitter, then nice, then even bitterer and then even nicer heroine. Iris was wonderful earlier this year when she played the queen high school bitch in "Carrie." She played the same character here, however, just moving her anger from a high school to a trailer park.
She’s a good singer, and I would love to see her challenged with a role that asked for more than what she is giving now. I would also like to see a real good vocal coach get hold of her and discuss the concept of understanding and believing every word you sing.
The other bright spot was newcomer Cynthia Przbylski, who made her stage debut in "Carrie." Here she gets more of a chance to spread her wings, and she’s got a pleasing voice and a delightfully cute manner. She also needs to learn the art of listening to what’s going on around her so that her songs and lines don’t just spring from nowhere.
As I walked out of the theater, I said a silent prayer of gratitude that the drunk guy came back after intermission. If he hadn’t, I might never have made it to the end.
"The Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical" runs through Dec. 28 and information on tickets and showtimes is available here.
With a history in Milwaukee stretching back decades, Dave tries to bring a unique perspective to his writing, whether it's sports, politics, theater or any other issue.
He's seen Milwaukee grow, suffer pangs of growth, strive for success and has been involved in many efforts to both shape and re-shape the city. He's a happy man, now that he's quit playing golf, and enjoys music, his children and grandchildren and the myriad of sports in this state. He loves great food and hates bullies and people who think they are smarter than everyone else.
This whole Internet thing continues to baffle him, but he's willing to play the game as long as OnMilwaukee.com keeps lending him a helping hand. He is constantly amazed that just a few dedicated people can provide so much news and information to a hungry public.
Despite some opinions to the contrary, Dave likes most stuff. But he is a skeptic who constantly wonders about the world around him. So many questions, so few answers.
