Full disclosure before we begin. I am not, nor have I ever been a trained theater critic. However, I have seen my fair share of shows in the West End, on/off Broadway and locally, and as a professional art critic, I can distinguish something truly amazing from something that makes me want to leave at the intermission.
That said, I must confess that any musical that closes with a rousing number built around the line “make like a nail and press on” is a winner in my book. Such a production might not be Pulitzer Prize winning material but if it’s handled well (which it is here) then it works for me.
The show in question is The Great American Trailer Park Musical now playing at the San Diego Repertory Theatre and just extended to December 11. Written by David Nehls and Betsy Kelso and directed by the Rep’s Sam Woodhouse The Great American Trailer Park Musical is a frothy soufflé of a show or better yet, a puff of neon-pink cotton candy gobbled up at the twilight-end of a summer’s day. In other words there is hardly anything there as far as a substantial story is concerned but there is more than enough sparkle and humor to keep an audience satisfied for 90 minutes (with no intermission – which I often appreciate).
Set in 2003, this calorie-filled slice of unreal Americana begins by breaking the fourth wall when Betty (Melinda Gilb) the big-haired owner of Armadillo Acres trailer park acknowledges the well-heeled audience before her and guesses we must have taken a wrong turn off the main road to wind up in the gaudy but cozy backwater of Starke, Fla. And with that Betty and her gum-smacking, wise-cracking BFF’s, ditzy Pickles (Kailey O’Donnell) and slutty Linoleum (Leigh Scarritt) lead us into the history and histrionics of those oddballs and Southern stereotypes that make the trailer park home.
Built around a love triangle as old as the hills (er, swamps) and a heaping hot mess of white trash clichés the flimsy plot at the heart of The Great American Trailer Park Musical and the motivations, challenges and regrets of Armadillo Acres’ residents is stitched together by numerous one-liners and 13 musical numbers, many them quite funny and surprising.
Despite the show’s comic-thin premise both Jeanie (Courtney Corey) an agoraphobic wife and Pippi (Jill Van Velzer) a sexy new stripper in town sing about their divergent plights with sincerity and depth, raising the production sufficiently above a one note joke. It’s not like I started bawling or anything, but I did forget the bubble-gum stereotypes for just a minute.
In fact, all the musical numbers are solid and the actors are clearly having a great time, especially Leigh Skarritt who chews through the scenery like a starving hungry beaver on a fresh new tree. I have never seen a performer so enthusiastic about a dance routine that a toilet brush flies out of her hand, which it did when she sang and danced to “Flushed Down the Pipes” the night I was there.
The set created by Ian Wallace is quite wonderful. So too is the lighting and costumes. It’s pretty much everything a boy who played with his sister’s Barbie dolls could want from a trailer park musical, with plenty of references to the 1980s. Theaters are inherently magical places but Wallace’s configuration of three trailers, a purple toilet smothered in potted plants and all manner of highway signs was worth my ticket into the Lyceum all by itself.
Fans of community favorite David McBean might wonder where he fits into Armadillo Acres because he doesn’t show up for a good long spell. But once his character Duke arrives on the scene McBean’s fans will encounter yet another indelible character, someone kinda scary-odd who fits right in.
The Great American Trailer Park Musical isn’t the most poignant play you’ll see all year but it might be the most fun. In this era of class warfare you’d have good reason to struggle with the shallow take on those at the bottom end of the 99 percentile. Alternatively, like everyone involved in this colorful production you can accept the show for what it is (a hyper camp August: Osage County) and enjoy the ride, even if it’s a wrong turn off a serious road.
The Great American Trailer Park Musical runs through Dec. 11 at the Lyceum Theatre, downtown. sdrep.org
