People who go to LaBute plays, or crave
David Mamet and Stephen Sondheim, probably don’t know much about the
game of bingo and have never put a Gucci loafer on the floor of a bingo
hall. So the first refreshing surprise of Bingo is its utter
lack of condescension. In this it contrasts with the last local show on
the same subject, Jeanne Michaels and Phyllis Murphy’s Queen of Bingo,
produced by Contemporary Theatre of Syracuse in 1996. Pathos hung
heavily over desperate players in that black comedy. This time the
spoof is loving and celebratory. At intervals the hostess Minnie
(Marcia Mele) turns on the house lights and gets the audience to join
in. And folks who usually show up for LaBute and Mamet all play and
happily accept cash prizes when they win.
Director Dan Tursi is one of the most
honored in town, and having worked with different companies in
different genres, he has an astute understanding of the local thespian
labor market. He may have put out a casting call, or maybe he just
called whom he needed. Anyway, he got the right people and then
audaciously cast them against type.
Take Aubry Ludington-Panek, usually one of the most glamorous presences on local stages; think Vixen in last December’s The Eight: Reindeer Monologues. Here
she’s almost unrecognizable as hyperfrump Patsy, who brings her
collection of 25 rabbits’ feet to the gaming table. Or model-thin,
elegant Katheryn Guyette as Honey. Stuff three sticks of Doublemint in
her slack jaw, plop a Dolly Parton wig on her head and she’s the queen
of trailer trash, unable to keep track of her many boyfriends. Or
cherubic redhead Kate Huddleston as Vern, the shortest member of the
cast. Could it be that her dirty secret is having played professional
basketball for four years before anyone realized she was a woman?
Although Bingo: The Musical is
set in a rural county somewhere east of the Mississippi (the local
radio station is WHAM), it originated early at Hermosa Beach Playhouse
before wending its way across the country to an eventual off-Broadway
debut in 2005. Reviews in different venues have been uniformly
enthusiastic, but it seems to be one of those little shows it takes
companies a while to discover. That may be because the principal
authors, Michael Heitzman and Ilene Reid, who composed the book and led
on the music and lyrics, are not yet established names. Heitzman was up
for a Grammy for a song in the Broadway musical Swing!, and Reid has worked for Sesame Street. David Holcenberg, the third name on the music and lyrics, worked on Mamma Mia!, Seussical and Titanic. Perhaps what has limited the circulation of this bubbly little show is that audiences just don’t know on which peg to hang it.
Bingo could be marketed as a comedy with Golden Girls humor
for a livelier set. Sample exchange: Honey (plaintively), “When I dated
Henry Borman he never gave me anything.” Vern (trying to be helpful),
“That’s not true. Remember you had to buy that special cream.”
There is a plot to Bingo: The Musical, but
it almost feels like an afterthought. Vern, Patsy and Honey are
regulars at the bingo hall hosted by Minnie, where Sam (Robb Sharp)
calls out and posts the numbers. As the only male in the cast, Sam must
exude a studied indifference to the contest that enthralls the girls.
Not that he isn’t paying attention to how events unfold. Eventually he
proves receptive to the charms of the much-wedded and much-bedded
Honey, but never betrays his integrity in calling the numbers.
Tension instead arises from a hurt Vern
suffered 15 years previous, when a long-haired Frank (Robb Sharp) was
calling the numbers. That’s when Vern suffered an unspecified wound
from a player named Bernice (Tina Lee). And, who knows, maybe the
obviously bewigged newcomer, Alison (Jodie Baum), who says she’s an
understudy on a TV soap opera, might have something to do with that old
injury.
This does not mean the music is only an
add-on, but songs do not necessarily advance the plot. The top song
comes just before the intermission, but is placed there because Alison
wants to tell the girls that she thinks she’s going to be in a musical
version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest called Cuckoo. Her
number is titled “Ratched’s Lament,” and in it Vern, Patsy, Honey and
Bernice appear in straitjackets. Director Tursi surely knew that Jodie
Baum can hit lower notes than any female singer in town before casting
her as Alison in this number.
The musical assets in Bingo may
not send many people to seek out the cast album, but many of the songs
are lots of fun on stage in the spoofy, enlarged skit way this show
works. As Vern, Huddleston carries much of the load here, with
“Flashback” and “Swell,” but some of the naughtiest fun comes when
Guyette as Honey belts out “Gentleman Caller.” Panek also scores with
her Patsy’s “Flashback” and the reprise of “I Still Believe.” The best
ensemble number is “I Still Believe in You” in the first act. Chris
Widomski’s musical direction with David Coons’ drums fills the bare
stage.
Bingo: The Musical may sound like a two-hour version of a Saturday Night Live sketch, but Dan Tursi has put six top girls in a row, and a best-ever Robb Sharp, to deliver the laughs.
—James MacKillop
This production runs through June 20. See Times Table for information.
