'3 Redneck Tenors' at Tacoma's Temple Theater

The touring production of "3 Redneck Tenors" played the Temple Theater in Tacoma for one night and it was one night too many.  Brought in by Tacoma's Broadway Center for the Performing Arts organization (who is known for bring through shows for one or two nights only), the Rednecks spewed forth wonderful voices (I'll give them that) but with tired jokes, technical issues and little conviction.

The story of "3 Redneck Tenors" (if you can call it that) centers around the 3 boys being discovered by the Colonel (played by Dinny Mcguire) who says with their voices he can make them stars.  He then has them perform in venue after venue with no success.  The Rednecks themselves are played by Matthew Lord (who also conceived the show), John Wilkerson, and Alex Bumpas.  The premise for the shows originally got it's start as an act on the TV show "America's Got Talent" as 3 guys dressed as rednecks performing opera.  The act did not make it into the finals and should have stopped there. 

The biggest problem with the show is that it's one joke told over and over again.  There is no plot or story arc to the show.  It's just the rednecks being put in ridiculous situations and ridiculous costumes and singing opera (as well as TV theme songs and other genres).  They have a framework of a kind of story but it goes nowhere.  A better show might be able to pull this off but this is not that show.  They bill themselves as a cross between "Greater Tuna" and "Das Barbecu" but the difference is that those shows are smart.  You can have a show about people who are supposed to be not so smart without dumbing down your script and humor.  The jokes are the same old and tired redneck jokes that have been around since day one, the "comedy" in it is all stupid outfits and bad slapstick.  And some of the costume pieces look like they picked them up at K-Mart.  For example the wigs are supposed to be mullets.  But they are so obviously bad wigs that have been trimmed that they miss the point of making these guys look like rednecks.  They look more like a cross between a rocker and a bad drag queen.  Not only that, but for a touring show, they don't really have their technical issues down.  The mics kept cutting out and whomever was running the sound board hit the wrong button and started the pre-recorded pre show announcement again 3 different times in act one alone.

The guys playing the rednecks (Lord, Wikerson and Bumpas) have really nice voices and are obviously well trained singers but they are wasting their talents in this.  The jokes are over delivered in such a way that everything felt forced.  And then we go from over delivery to under delivery.  Mcguire as the Colonel needs to work on his timing.  As the narrator of the show it's his responsibility to keep the show moving along but he sounded like he wasn't really sure of what he was saying, needed to speak up (even though he was miked) and had the comic timing of wet grass.  Everytime he came on stage, what little energy there was plummeted.

Now I must mention that not everyone was having as horrible a time as I was.  There were people in this Tacoma audience who were rocking with laughter.  I can only assume that this type of broad humor was there kind of thing, or they were a little drunk.  I was wondering why the ushers made a point of telling me as I walked in that the house wasn't open yet but the bar was.  Now I know, they were trying to get us all "pre show happy" to alleviate the pain to come. 

But I should add that this is not indicative of all shows that The Broadway Center usually brings through town.  They've had such wonderful shows as "Altar Boyz", "Movin' Out" and such great performers as k.d. lang and Queen Latifah.  And upcoming on their season they have a production of "Educating Rita", and acrobatic troupe called "Do Jump" and an afternoon of classic comedy with the legendary Lily Tomlin.  So, don't stay away all together, just realize that in a sea of diamonds, you're bound to find a plain old rock.  For more information on shows put on at the 3 theaters of the Broadway Center you can contact the box office at 253-591-5894 or toll-free at 1-800-291-7593 or visit them online at www.broadwaycenter.org.

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