"Pageant": One Beauty of a Show

SHOW INFORMATION: Pageant runs through March 9; Fri and Sat at 8PM, Sun at 2PM.  Tickets are $18.00 general.  BroadwayWorld readers get $5.00 each ticket!  Bring this article to the box office or go to www.spotlighters.org, click on Tickets and enter code BWW-PGT.  RESERVATIONS ARE HIGHY RECOMMENDED.  Call 410-752-1225 or go to www.spotlighters.org for information.

 

◊◊◊◊ 1/2 out of five.  1 hour, 45 minutes, no intermission.  Adult humor, sexuality and situations.

There must be something in the air over Baltimore these days!  Two established local companies have the hottest tickets in town, and both feature SIX queens!  While Mobtown has literal royalty going on over at their Hampden digs, the Mt. Vernon crowd over at Spotlighters has six lovely ladies of the drag queen variety (With La Cage over at Toby's, one has to wonder where you can buy any makeup these days!). Pageant, a musical spoof and loving tribute to that venerable American institution, the beauty pageant, ran at Spotlighters and several other venues around town ten years ago, and was a smash hit rarely seen in these parts.  Well, the girls might be a little longer in the tooth, but they are as fabulous as ever!  This non-stop (literally) laugh riot starts at full speed and threatens to blow the roof off of the tiny Spotlighters Theatre, where the show continues through March 9.  With superb casting, tight direction and hilarious sight gags and choreography, it is no wonder they brought this one back – and one can only assume it is as good as ever!

Written and conceived by a couple of Broadway guys who know a thing or two about divas (Bill Russell and Robert Longbottom of Dreamgirls and Side Show fame), they also know quite a bit about parody and light-hearted fun.  Pageant is exactly what the title suggests: an actual pageant, with six girls vying for the title of Miss Glamouresse 2008.  Each girl represents a region of the United States (my favorite "titles" – Miss Bible Belt and Miss Industrial Northeast) and they go through the paces of talent, evening gown, swim suit, spokes model, and, (are you ready for this?) a beauty crisis call competition.  Members of the audience are randomly selected to be judges, and the result can be completely different each night.  But of course this may look and act like a pageant, but the twist is that the girls are really guys, and their, um, talents are a festival of laughs from start to finish.  With songs like "Natural Born Females" and "(She's Got) Something Extra", the gender-bending is never really far from your mind.  But one of the things that truly makes this work is that each actor is playing it straight – that is he is playing a woman, not a man playing a woman – which really endears these talented gals to the audience.  The script, like the songs, is full of double and triple entendre, and literally goes one joke after another.  The audience I attended with howled and screamed with laughter throughout, and truth be told, my sides hurt at the curtain call.

Yes, the script is witty and deceptively complicated to pull off, but it is established from the get go that this is one polished tiara under the deft direction of Terry Long-Erickson, who both sends up and pays tribute to beauty pageants, and who seems to understand what they need to work, unlike The Donald and his minions over in Atlantic City.  What do they need?  FUN!  And Long-Erickson and his team deliver that with plenty to spare.  Jason Kimmell has developed choreography that matches the parody/tribute style of the show, all with a wink and a firmly planted tongue in cheek.  Denise Umland's costumes are equally funny, especially in a number that takes place on Venus, and Jason Kueberth's wigs are a hoot, particularly in that same number, which has each girl in what amounts to a hairdo made of pink cotton candy!  Brian A. Erickson-Long deserves special recognition for his ingenious props which are featured in several spokes model segments, though I won't give a single one away here.  And of course, this being a musical, one must mention the band, which plays with the same wit as the rest of the show (Robert A. Gee, musical direction and keyboards, Lisa Wood on drums).

What would a pageant be without an emcee?  Frankie Cavalier is our host, and he's as good as you might expect from a beauty pageant at this level.  Played with a wicked grin and an even more wicked toupee by David Minges, the emcee provides a welcome anchor and guide to the mayhem on stage.  Mr. Minges sings well and has the slimy delivery down pat.  One wishes he would slow down just a wee bit, and pause occasionally to let the audience laugh without fear of missing the next great joke.

In alphabetical order, our 2008 finalists are: Miss Kitty-Bob Ames – Miss Texas, played by Richard Goldberg, who takes the "Great State" to heart, playing everything huge.  And most of the time it works – he is very funny, and not too bad to look at either.  Anyone who can handle two cap pistols and a horse on a stick is aces in my book.  But he might remember to take care not to overshadow the main attraction with his asides and adlibs.  He gets plenty of his own stage time.  Next, we have Miss Bonnie Louise Cutlett – Miss Great Plains, played with almost nauseatingly Midwestern charm by Douglas Lisenbee.  Her grin is wide, her hair is tall, and Lisenbee milks every possible laugh out of her spokes model segment, and an uproarious talent featuring batons.  He is dead on in his parody and appreciably understated when necessary.  Nice work, Miss Cutlett!

Consuela Manuela Rafaela Lopez, aka Miss Industrial Northeast, is one hot tamale played with a wicked grin and thick accent by Brian Jacobs, who looks like he is having the time of his life.  And who can blame him?  Among Miss Lopez's many talents are the ability to roller blade and play the accordion and sing at the same time.  And I will never look at a Hot Pocket the same way again – go see the show to find out why.  Trust me, it is a scream!  The name Karma Quinn says it all when describing the other worldly quality that makes Miss West Coast quake.  Played with wide-eyed wonder and a stunning smile by David C. Allen, Miss Quinn is Lady Airhead.  The opening moments of her talent stop the show.  Allen is perhaps the most graceful gal onstage, and really knows how to work the crowd.

Stuart Goldstone shows even more of his personal range with his role as Ruth Anne Ruth – Miss Bible Belt.  Her dimples will melt your heart, even as her piety and Jesus worship threatens to send you to Hell for thinking devilish thoughts.  Goldstone delivers on all cylinders – he is funny, charming and mock-sincere in the most delightful way.  Finally, as Miss Laurinda Summerford – Miss Deep South, Jim Waltz is a mess of girlish wit and enough Southern charm to send Mame packing.  Her huge, deep eyes, her soft twang and her way with a couple of hand puppets are sure to endear this lovely lady to your heart.  That Waltz is perhaps the most convincing "girl" is indisputable.

Pageant is a charmer and loads of fun.  There are several other surprises and the ending sums it all up nicely (no spoilers here). The time flies and your certainly get an amazing endorphin rush by the end of it.  And you leave having met six of the loveliest ladies in Baltimore, a big something extra for your ticket price!  See you girls in 2018!

PHOTOS: Courtesy of Spotlighters.  TOP to BOTTOM: The Pageant Company; Miss Texas, Kitty-Bob Ames (Richard Goldberg); Miss Great Plains, Bonnie Louise Cutlett (Doug Lisenbee); Miss Industrial Northeast, Consuela Manuela Rafaela Lopez (Brian Jacobs); Miss West Coast, Karma Quinn (David C. Allen); Miss Bible Belt, Ruth Anne Ruth (Stuart Goldstone); and Miss Deep South, Laurinda Summerford (Jim Waltz).

 

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