Things are jolly as can be in the Fellowship Hall of the Umatilla Second Christian Church (a.k.a. the Stauss Studio Theater at Northern Kentucky University) where CHURCH GIRLS: UMATILLA, U.S.A. is back and better than ever through July 28.
Three years after its debut, the musical satire about the fervently faithful gals in a Deep South congregation returns sharply edited and sporting a top-notch non-Equity cast.
While Umatilla is in Florida, in spirit it's just down the road from Tuna, Texas, in which guys famously play a variety of offbeat and readily identifiable characters.
In Umatilla, they also sing (with solid harmonies) and dance to an ingratiating score by music director Jamey Strawn (who dons a dress and wig to accompany on keyboard). Roderick Justice provides the inventive choreography.
At Commonwealth Theatre, six actors spend most of their time playing "Church Girls" planning a Mother's Day pageant (which somehow ends up with that tribute to mother love "Oedipus Rex"), but husbands and kids and neighbors keep wandering in and out.
While CHURCH GIRLS aims no higher than your funny bone with a bucket of deep-fried eccentricity and a hefty ladle of double entendre, it hits its target as an affectionate spoof by a talented, likeable cast.
The story and book are by NKU theater department chair
Ken Jones, who knows how to create specifically drawn characters. Jones co-directs with
Christine Jones, who is also the show's lyricist, and with their cast they bring Umatilla to life.
Jones is also a cast member and gives himself some doozies, reveling in physical comedy routines as a practically blind dentist with protruding teeth and as a seamstress with a hacking smoker's cough.
As a writer, Jones is generous in handing out opportunities for comedy and for moments of emotional honesty, all handled adeptly by:
Charlie Clark (the sole member of Equity briefly returned to town) playing a gentle-souled woman and her villainous husband; Ken Early, as the put-upon African-American choir director and a courtly handyman; Roderick Justice in a variety of roles that include a Botoxed hussy, and Rodger Pille and
Chris Stewart, who both bring the funny to every role.
Tickets are $30 for dinner and show - if you can scare up a ticket. The run is close to sold out, but check for a likely added performance.
CHURCH GIRLS, through July 28, Commonwealth Theatre, Fine Arts Center, Northern Kentucky University, Highland Heights. Tickets $30 dinner and show. Free valet parking. Call 859-572-5464 for reservations.
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