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Where’s the Popcorn?
The Phantom has never been a huge phan of the art (?) of melodrama. So he went with mixed feelings and some foreboding to the Navasota Theater Alliance production of Peril on the High Seas. This would be the third time The Phantom had willingly attended a melodrama. The first was a professional production aided and abetted by several pitchers of ice-cold beer and large bags of un-buttered popcorn. The second was a community show with too little beer and only a small bag of popcorn, and the production was so dreadful that The Phantom (usually a kind, generous, benevolent soul who wishes only good will toward peace and men on earth) [but you knew that, being a regular visitor to this site] {oho! You can pretend not to have that RSS feed alerting you to any new development at this humble location, but you know you never miss a word} <it’s okay; it’s innocent fun. Unless you’re in the cast> /what cast? Oh, right\ wished in this case for a heavier, sharp, more dangerous projectile. But the NTA has been fairly trustworthy in the past, so The Phantom went to the show. Warily.
Uh, oh. We couldn’t start the show until we heard from the president of NTA. These things happen, although we admit to admiring TTC’s new rapid-fire version of a recorded introduction in which our host tellsusnottostandintheaisles but does so quickly to get it over with. But what’s this? We’re not done. Now, here comes the director of the show. It’s a twofer! And not in a good way. Our speaker is a fine actress and she was a good director but boy, did she like to hear herself talk. She’s got that beaming smile and, according to the program, is a good Christian woman, but 7 minutes in we were getting fidgety. We were thinking it was the devil’s work. We were rehearsed on how to behave at a melodrama. We have a go at booing and hissing and awing and shucks-ing. She continues to beam and congratulate us at our finesse and fineness and we just can’t be annoyed. It’s melodrama and there is latitude (which is getting narrower as the minutes tick by). If one took the trouble to carefully review the program—as The Phantom certainly did after his grave error of experiencing La Turista without a thorough indoctrination—one discovered that our good lady is equally verbose with the written word. She has a lot to say. She certainly does. Can we please see the show now?
And as melodramas go, this one came with the usual cheesy story line: A sweet innocent beset by dastardly villain, the naïve hero, comic support actors, uh, people. Lots of booing (we were trained, remember?), cheering for the darling etc., etc. Melodrama never strays from this tried and true formula, only the setting is different.
Our characters were slowly introduced in the opening scene which dragged on a bit. This may have been due to the chronic under-rehearsing so common to community theater; after all, our intrepid volunteer thespians have to hold down real lives and real jobs in addition to the hours they devote to the theater. But this whole scene should have been snappier. It didn’t click. Perhaps it did in the second weekend of performances. We shall never know.
We met the three flappers: Mitzy, Ritzy and Ditzy. Cute, young and full of energy. Hedda Hooper was to become our unofficial narrator, and she had a veritable wardrobe of costume changes. Mary Pickaxe was a familiar face to local theater who managed to be a little creepy in her role. We are guessing (and hoping) that this was intentional. A slew of other characters trotted themselves out for our perusal. Our favorites were Sgt. Willy Ketchum and his lovely bride, Wanda. Sgt. Ketchum was supposed to be one of New York’s finest, but by the sounds of his accent he must have hailed from the southern end of Manhattan. Misplaced accent notwithstanding, he and his wife had the best bits, the best wiseacre name and some of the best delivered lines (in terms of comedic timing) of the entire production.
We also appreciated the performance of newcomer Aracnia Webb. (Get it?) She was a dastardly villainess with a capital D. Our main villain with his well-rounded tone (radio training perhaps) was too well-rounded and not evil enough. He kept reminding The Phantom of Captain Kangaroo, and that had the unfortunate consequence of some subsequent nights with disturbing dreams involving Mr. Green Jeans and Mr. Moose in green jeans. Or something. Our therapist is positively beside himself with subtext Freudian glee. But we digress.
Our heroine was so pretty and so innocent and quite the palest and blondest young lady we have ever seen. She did a fine job of innocence, growth and return to innocence. Clap, clap, pale young lady. Good job. Our hero was an excellent costar also fairly dripping with virginal innocence right down to his ill-fitting costume and well-worn shoes. Our semi-hero, requisite handsome guy was none other than the young power lifter who we enjoyed in Almost, Maine. This time, unfortunately, not so much. It’s melodrama and he was handsome (overheard in audience: “That guy is hot”), but his timing was slow and awkward. We found that there were quite a few moments that could have been tightened significantly. The Phantom was sensing a trend that may speak to the direction that was offered the actors. Pace, people. Timing. It’s a comedic event.
The drunken/poisoned champagne scene was a tad painful to watch. With so many of the cast having to pretend to be intoxicated, it was a scene that was doomed from the start. Almost everyone overacts outrageously in such situations, and only a firm hand from the director can save the day.
The kooky chase scene was well done. The set was spare and effective. The costuming: impressive. Even the wig use didn’t bother The Phantom. There is, after all, significant latitude awarded a melodrama. However, The Phantom was not convinced by the experience to become a phan of this form of live entertainment.
Nevertheless, the audience had a great time. They got more boisterous as the evening wore on (clap, clap, audience, you were an integral part of the show). And that’s the whole point of melodrama. We definitely got our money’s worth at this evening of campy, silly fun.
Other than that, it was great.
The Phantom
