Mommie Queerest is outrageous slapstick comedy

Due to the popularity of sitcoms, it is easy to forget slapstick favorites of the golden age of television with celebrated acts like Charlie Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy, The Three Stooges, Jerry Lewis, and Lucille Ball of "I Love Lucy" fame. Even with the success of modern day disciples of the genre like Jim Carrey and Will Ferrell, one may feel as if we are witnessing the disappearance of this art form.

Uptown Players has revived this tradition of slapstick with its outrageous stage production Mommie Queerest, a parody of the 1970s book and hit film "Mommie Dearest" based on the life of screen actress Joan Crawford, now running through Jul. 12 at the S4 Rose Room in the Oak Lawn area.

Written by Jamie Morris (The Facts of Life: The Lost Episode) and featuring the hilarious Coy Covington in the title role and actors Chad Peterson, Kevin Moore, and Paul J. Williams as supporting cast members playing 25 characters, Mommie Queerest doesn't fail to deliver laugh after laugh after glorious laugh.

Coy and the gang prepared the audience for what would become a memorable and sometimes interactive evening with a filmed montage of shots of Mommie Queerest in various stages of getting ready for her adoring fans. I won't give away any of the content of the short film but will say one shot of the great Queen/King mother with a wide black marker and her subsequent entrance were definite showstoppers.

Directed by Andi Allen and set in two acts divided into thirty-three different scenes (vignettes), Mommie Queerest set out on a quest to show everyone who was the queen bitch of the evening, mainly her temperamental and often times self-absorbed adopted daughter Christina, played to the hilt by the talented Chad Peterson.

Peterson's gift for comedy, namely slapstick, was so over-the-top with his melodramatic antics that in a few scenes he actually upstaged his dear old Mommie.

One such instance was "The Swimming Pool" scene, one of my favorites, in which the young chippie tries to out swim her more masculine mommy during a lap swim competition. Peterson had the audience howling with laughter as he mimicked a frightened Christina through a series of squeals and shrieks and hyperventilating gasps as an impending Mommie Queerest seeks to overtake and conquer her.

Another effective scene was when Mommie Queerest decides to punish Christina for attempting to become like her dear old mother, an Austin Powers "Mini-Me" if you will, and cuts off her crown and glory of beautiful, bouncy Shirley Temple golden locks. With a Twilight Zone feel complete with strobe lights, Peterson was definitely a delightful scene-stealer.

Moore and Williams each had their bright moments as well, including their roles as LG, Carol Ann the nanny, a quirky nun, and a host of colorful and memorable characters in a number of scenes.

However, whether through a nervous eye-twitch, physical humor, slapstick routines, or overall bitchy "diva-ness", the night belonged to Covington, who owned the stage with the presence of a relentless estrogen-driven dictator. If you thought the persona of Joan Crawford was larger than life in the film version of this story, Covington's portrayal of Mommie Queerest on stage made Crawford seem like nothing short of God.

In one scene that felt totally impromptu, Mommie Queerest is outside a popular restaurant signing autographs and quips rancorously about her acting nemesis Bette Davis "I never touched the bitch," as well as "Bette Davis is a dyke Joan Crawford" that had the audience rolling in their seats.

Likewise, the bloody meat scene was so funny with Covington and Peterson playing off each other so effectively that it felt like watching the recent tennis match between tennis great Serena Williams and Patty Schnyder at the Italian Open in Rome.

Equally as funny was the Pepsi-Cola boardroom scene in which Mommie Queerest admonishes her male counterparts with "don't $%&# with me fellas! This ain't my first time at the rodeo!", which Covington squeezed more laughs out of than humanly possible.

No Mommie Dearest adaptation would be complete without the infamous wire hanger scene. In the Mommie Queerest version, athletic theme music served as a background for those 4-little words every person in the 70s has never forgotten "no wire hangers EVER!" along with a break in character that put the audience in the driver's seat. 

Photo credit: Mike Morgan

For more info: Contact Uptown Players at 214-219- or visit at www.uptownplayers.org. This play is for mature audiences only and those under 21 will not be admitted. Tickets are $25 and can be purchased by clicking this link.

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