Review: Short North Stage's DIE, MOMMIE DIE! is a Must See

Actor Doug Joseph has gone from playing Cecil B. DeMille in the Short North Stage's production of SUNSET BOULEVARD to playing the very Norma Desmond-esque Angela Arden in the theatre's production of DIE, MOMMIE DIE!

The way Joseph easily morphs from DeMille in the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical to the over-the-top, over-the-hill actress Angela in the campy Charles Busch comedy is just one reason to see the latest offering from the Short North Stage. The two-act play runs through Feb. 21 at the Garden Theater's Green Room (1187 North High Street in downtown Columbus).

The play is part homage/part parody of what director Edward Carignan calls the "horror hag" films of the 1960s-70s that starred the likes of Joan Crawford and Bette Davis. In this production, Angela (Joseph) is a once-promising diva whose career has gone south as she mysteriously lost her voice after the death of her twin sister. She's married to struggling director Sol Sussman (Ralph E. Scott), who seems to be more interested in his daughter Edith (Erin Mellon) than his wife. Angela herself has become involved with former actor/country club tennis pro/humidor repairman/gigolo Tony Parker (Nick Lingnofski).

In return, Tony seeks a quickie with everything with a pulse, including Edith and her brother Lance (Johnny Robison). Keeping the house in order is Bootsie Carp (Josie Merkle), a Bible-quoting, flask-sipping, Nixon-supporting maid who has designs of her own on Sol.

When Sol learns of his wife's dalliance with Parker, he takes away her credit cards, the withering strands of her career and her chance to flee for a romantic getaway with Parker. Angela decides to bump off the director with an arsenic-laced suppository.

However Parker convinces Edith and later Lance that their father's death may not have been from a heart attack.

"Oh, many rich old men that die of heart attacks are really the victims of arsenic poisoning. Tony told me so," Edith tells her brother.

Busch's script is wonderfully ironic and kneads great zingers throughout the cast. As essential with farces, Carignan's cast delivers each line with an over-the-top energy without it seeming to be exaggerated overacting.

Ironically, one of the best lines is directed at the cast itself. When it is learned one of the character's deaths was faked, Edith says incredulously "I don't understand it. I saw the policemen, the doctor, the ambulance driver ..."

"They were all professional actors."

"What about the coroner?"

"He was Community Theater." After the line, the entire cast looks sheepishly at the audience after the line is delivered.

If the Short North Stage continues to elevate area theatre, that punchline might be lost on future audiences.

DIE, MOMMIE DIE! will be performed at the Garden Theater's Green Room 8 p.m. Feb. 6-7, 11-13 and 18-20 with 3 p.m. matinees on Feb. 14 and 21. For more information, please call 614-725-4042.

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