'Rought Night at the Remo Room' refreshes
Rough Night at the Remo Room
stars Radio Music Theatre regulars Rich
Mills, Vicki Farrell and writer/director Steve Farrell. In addition to playing
everything from the guitar to the saxophone, the three-person cast brims with
energy and wit as it sings and acts all the parts in this comedy.
The predicament is simple: the small town of Dumpster, Texas, is suffering from urban problems like vagrants, mobsters, crime and drugs, and it is up to the Fertle family, a large clan of singing Baptists, to restore order to their town.
The leaders of the community -- a doctor who sees the problems but becomes unintelligible in times of excitement and a sheriff who clumsily films himself all day in an effort to be on Cops -- bring much confusion and laughter to the production.
The repertoire of music genres ranges from country to Spanish; the lyrics are silly and often funny.
While the script entertains overall, the humor in the beginning is often trite, and many of the puns fall into my "what ever " category. However, within 20 minutes or so, the dialogue picks up. To the cast's credit, the energy level starts on high and never wanes -- even when the quality of the show does.
The doors open at 7:30 p.m., and the show begins an hour later. The ploy, of course, is to make the crowd come and sit for about an hour and order tons of champagne and peanuts while it is waiting for the entertainment to start. (Even a glass of water will cost you 50 cents.)
Radio Music Theatre is an interesting place. The venue offers a bar, a large dining area and good lighting (translation: it is light enough for you to make your way between tables and to the bathroom successfully while dark enough so that you need not be concerned whether anyone can tell that you have just dribbled salsa all over your slacks). Other pluses include the comfortable chairs, the pleasantly cool temperature and the clean air, as the performance area is a non-smoking environment.
The stage is front and center. Since we were seated directly in front of the stage, the sound struck me a might too strongly, but the people in the middle and back were probably perfectly pleased with the volume.
The atmosphere is casual, fun and eclectic. Couples doing the date thing, business people doing the dinner thing and senior citizens doing the tour-downtown-Houston thing were all laughing by the night's end.
This item appeared in the Arts & Entertainment section of the September 13, 1996 issue.
Copyright © 1996 The Rice Thresher. All Rights
Reserved.
This document may be distributed
electronically, provided that it is distributed in its
entirety and includes this notice. However, it cannot be reprinted
without the express written permission of:
The Rice Thresher, Rice University, 6100 Main, Houston, TX 77005-1892, USA.
The Thresher Online Project -- ethresh@listserv.rice.edu