Left to right above: Brandon Keller, Kia Chapman, Margie Lamb and Patrick Brownson
Left to right below: Maggie Tisdale, Stephanie Hancock and Alix Brickley
If you are lookin’ for good old-fashioned white trash
entertainment with lotsa music and singin’ and dancin’ then you should get on over to
see Ignite’s fine production of “The Great American Trailer Park Musical.” It’s
at Armadillo Acres aka Aurora Fox Arts. It’s got great tunes all written by
David Nehls and played by a great in-trailer band led by Music Director Midge
McMoyer-Smith. The in trailer décor looks like they have shopped til they
dropped over to Army Navy Surplus and the like. I think I even saw one of those
singin’ wall fish. You can only get them at Army and Navy. Benjy Schirm has
done the scenic décor for this piece with an eye to the eyesore. Some of the
folk who wandered in from off the strip there on East Colfax didn’t know what
realism looked like until they got a gander at this show. The show works just
fine in the intimacy of the black box studio there at Aurora Fox. You do not
need no doublewide stage to perform the likes of Mr. Nehls’ masterwork. No sir!
I would recommend this to every redneck cowpoke or stripper off the strip
without havin’ qualm one. And let me just tell you that when you see what
director Pam Clifton has gotten these degenerates to do onstage you will be
wantin’ to audition for her next travesty right now. Never in the history of
theatre on East Colfax have so many had so little on and shaken it so well. They
must have been drinkin’ a lot of hooch during rehearsal as there are piles of
Bud cans rollin’ around outside those lovely mobile homes. These are characters
ripped from the pages of low life literature such as could only be prepared by those
street hacks of yesteryear and their literary progeny. All seriousness aside
this is fun, fun fun! If you are a connoisseur (thank God for spell check!) who
likes Larry, The Cable Guy you are gonna love this show. The costumes are of
the tacky and tawdry variety with the emphasis on hilarious! Since nobody is
named as being responsible for these - were they afraid someone might call the
fashion police? - one may assume that they can be attributed to director
Clifton. All seriousness aside this is a laugh-riot of a show with a cast that
is adorable. Alix Brickley,
Stephanie Hancock and Maggie Tisdale provide superb solos and a great trio as long
time members of this community. The multi-talented Margie Lamb (Best Actress in a Musical for her role in "Next to Normal") and Patrick
Brownson (the superb Cookie Monster in Vintage Theatre’s “Avenue Q”) portray two trailer
park married folk whose marriage is going down the tubes faster than you can
say Pippi. Kia Chapman (Pippi) is gorgeous and has a superb soprano. Her stage
movement is stupefyingly deelish.
Ms. Lamb plays Jeannie, an agoraphobic woman who has not left her mobile
home since her little boy was kidnapped years ago. Her husband, Norbert IS able
to leave the mobile home and finds, well … you’ll see. Brandon Keller plays Duke, a jealous dude who
sniffs Magic Markers. Stephanie Prugh’s choreography is outstanding! Without
giving any spoilers out I just would like to add that this is one of the most
entertaining shows to come down the pike in quite a while. If you love to laugh
run to get tickets.
Not to be missed.
$25 Adult -- $20 (Groups 6+) -- $18 Students
April 20th - May 6th
Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 pm
Sundays at 2:30 pm
Sundays at 2:30 pm
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