The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told.

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The Most Fabulous Story Ever Told by Paul Rudnick and Directed by Tommy Wooten, is now playing at Footlight Theater at Parliament House (410 North Orange Blossom Trail Orlando FL.)  Tim Evanicki productions backed out of producing the play, so the cast and crew are now producing the show themselves.  This same show appeared on the Footlight Stage way back in 2001 and was the first published play to appear on the stage. 

A stage manager, (Beth Marshall), headset and prompt book at hand, brings the house lights to half, then dark, and cues the creation of the world. Throughout the play, she’s in control of everything. In other words, she’s either God, or she thinks she is. Beth brought just the right amount of arrogant and bored attitude to the part.  I was laughing out loud through most of the first act. 

Act One recounts the major episodes of the Old Testament, only with a twist: Instead of Adam and Eve, our lead characters are Adam (Brett McMahon) and Steve (Tripp Karrh), and Jane (Sara Jones) and Mabel (Camilla Camilo), a lesbian couple with whom they decide to start civilization (procreation proves to be a provocative challenge). My sketch might imply full frontal nudity, but Adam and Steve wore tight bathing suits with fig leaves and then puppet floppy bits. A hilarious scene involves Adam talking to a seated Jane and his bits are hardly hidden by a loin cloth inches from her face

Act One covers the Garden of Eden, an ark, a visit with a highly rambunctious Pharaoh and finally even the Nativity. Along the way, Mabel and Adam invent God, but Jane and Steve are skeptical. This brings about the Flood, during which Steve has a brief affair with a rhinoceros and invents infidelity. No longer blissful, Adam and Steve break up only to be reunited as two of the wise men at the Nativity.

Act Two jumps to modern day Manhattan. Adam and Steve are together again, and Steve is HIV positive. It’s Christmas Eve, and Jane is nine months pregnant even though she always thought of herself as the butch one. The two women want to marry and want Adam and Steve to join them in the ceremony. A wheelchair-bound, Jewish lesbian Rabbi from cable access TV arrives to officiate. The ceremony is interrupted as Jane gives birth, and Steve confides to Adam that his medication isn’t working and that he’ll probably not survive much longer. Bound by their long life together, and the miracle of birth they’ve just witnessed, the two men comfort each other even though they know their remaining time together will be short.

THE MOST FABULOUS STORY EVER TOLD

by Paul Rudnick

Directed by Tommy Wooten

At Parliament House Footlight Theatre, 410 N. Orange Blossom Trail, Orlando, FL 32805

Fridays and Saturdays, December 1 – 22

Special Industry Night Performance on Monday, December 11.

All performances 7:00PM.

Tickets: $20 at phouse.ticketleap.com or 888-202-1708

Daddy Issues at the Parliament House.Footlight Theater in

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Coming direct from its Off Broadway premiere, Daddy Issues written and directed by David Goldyn is coming to the Footlight Theater in the Parliament House (410 North Orange Blossom Trail, Orlando FL). Pam Schwartz and I went to a dress rehearsal. Walking in, we passed a drag queen bingo session going on at the bar. The cast sat in the audience for the first hour or so since Blue Estrella was working power nailing baseboards to the walls, framed show posters were hung on the wall with care. We all waited with anticipation for a white door to arrive which went stage left. I had to resist drawing any furniture since it had been pushed around the stage to make room for set construction. An air compressor that looked like a cross between a Roomba and R2D2 was eventually removed.

Donald Moscowitz (Wes Miles) has overbearing parents. Don’t we all? He is trying to live his life as a gay man in 1980s New York as a
struggling actor no less. Of course his parents are in denial about his
lifestyle, disapprove of his career choice, and question his flair for
decoration. To get his family to stop kvetching, Donald needs a son. With the help of his ballsy best friend Henrietta (Darby Ballard) and rising drag
queen Levi (Tim Garnham), Donald hires the ten-year-old kid (Rhysee Silvestro) from downstairs to play
his son. What could go wrong?

This fast-paced new comedy, takes
audiences on a fun ride to remind us just how far we’ll go
for family.  Both Henrietta and Levi want to play the part of Donald’s long lost girlfriend that he dated in college, before he realized he was gay. When his grandmother (Jack LeDoux) brings home the real college girlfriend, Mary Ellen (Melanie Leon) who happens to be the mom of the 10-year-old son Donald has hired. Melanie was always thick into the drink, having named her son Johnnie Walker. Her off kilter performance certainly added humor to the third act.

Donald’s father Sid (Joe Zimmer) and grandmother approach the boy to find out if he has been circumcised, only to be pulled away by Donald. The show was a fun romp. It was just as fun to watch the actors who performed with selfless abandon since there was no audience. For instance, rehearsing the bows for the first time brought out some over the top styles.

Daddy Issues opens Friday August 4th at Footlight Theater.

Tickets are $20  7:30PM to 10:30PM

Show Dates are

Friday August 4

Saturday August 5

Friday August 11

Saturday August 12

Friday August 18

Saturday August 19

Monday August 21 (Industry Night)

Saturday August 26

Dog Sees God is at the Parliament House.

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The Peanuts comic strip meets Reality in “Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead” at the Footlight Theatre

Orlando, Fl. The show is, an “unauthorized parody” written by Bert V. Royal and directed by David Lee, opening at the Footlight Theatre, (410 North Orange Blossom Trail Orlando, Florida). It imagines the characters from Charles M. Schulz’s beloved Peanuts’ characters 10 years later as angst fueled teenagers. But this is no comic strip!

Their names have been altered a bit but all of the characters and back story are easy to identify.

“CB”, aka Charlie Brown, (Christopher Walen) as lost his beloved dog and is struggling with existential questions of life and death and sexual identity. Piano-playing “Schroeder” is now the bullied and ostracized “Beethoven.” (Chris Metz) Matt, the “Pigpen” character, (Campbell Gilliland) is now a homophobic germophobe, “Sally” (Madeleine Elise) has gone goth and “Linus” is a Buddhist stoner (Zachary Lane). Lucy, (Rachel Comeau) once the nickel psychologist, is a feisty pyromaniac who’s been sent off to an institution.

The gang grapples with teenage realities of drug use, suicide, eating disorders, bullying, rebellion, and sexual identity, wrapped in skewered, funny, and poignant twists.

To find the rehearsal at the Parliament house, David Lee told me to walk past the back bar. I spotted an actress taking the same route and I followed her to the stage door. This was going to be a tech rehearsal with a complete run through of the show. It wasn’t a dress rehearsal, but Margaret and David showed me a publicity shot which hinted at the final costumes.  I did make a few clothing changes in the sketch. A scene where Sally performed a one woman show was funny and powerful at the same time. She was a caterpillar who dreamed not of becoming, not a butterfly, but a platypus. Her high energy was infectious. Her brother “CB” was the one high school student who didn’t fit in with any clicks yet didn’t mind being different. He questioned the meaning of life after loosing his beloved Snoopy whose red dog house sat center stage during the pre-show. The inside of the dog house glowed red as did the Plexiglas cubes which functioned as tables, chairs and platforms as needed.

I always thought that Peppermint Patty, Aka Trish (Julianne Snyder) might be a lesbian. Her valley girl mannerisms and sexy boisterousness performance left open the possibility that she and Marcy (Veronika Kelly) might hook up. They were open to sharing a guy in a threesome and it would just make sense to leave the guy out of the equation eventually. Every scene stays true to the original characters while addressing the insane and difficult world of the high school social structure. It is was like “The Breakfast Club” with Charles Schultz’s pubescent characters. When Sally gives her brother a letter from a pen pal “CS” the cast turned towards a screen with a photo of Charles Schultz. The letter reminded CB to stay true to himself despite all odds. I found myself getting choked up at this imagined gesture from a cartoonist whose time here on earth had passed. The show presented characters that I fell in love with all over again. There was loss, sorrow as well as rebellious joy. It packed an emotional punch. Good grief, so don’t miss it.

WHAT:
“Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead” is directed by David Lee, assistant directed by Gabriella Juliet Beals and produced by Kangagirl Productions-Margaret Nolan. Graphics and photography by Jocelynn White, sound design by Rachel Comeau, set design by David Lee, and costume assistance by Kyla Swanberg.

WHEN:
Saturdays- August 1, 8, 15 and 22 @7:30PM | Industry Night- Monday, August 24 @7:30PM

WHERE:
The Footlight Theatre, Parliament House 410 N. Orange Blossom Trail | Orlando, FL 32805

TICKETS:
$10 Advance | $15 at the door | Admission to the Parliament House.