| Kelsey Escue plays a factory worker enjoying the company picnic in the Black Swamp Players’ musical “The Pajama Game” which opens tonight in Bowling Green. (Photos: J.D. Pooley/Sentinel-Tribune) |
“The Pajama Game’ is the kind of musical the show’s efficiency
expert would love.It’s musical theater assembly line with just enough dialogue
to shuffle the plot to the next song.Director Bob Marzola has marshalled the
right cast to do the show justice, providing the big voices and comic patter
required.“The Pajama Game” opens tonight at 8 p.m. at the First United Methodist
Church, 1506 E. Wooster St., Bowling Green. It continues Saturday at 8 p.m. and
Sunday at 2 p.m. with shows next weekend as well.The labor-struggle plot is a
bit odd for a musical, but that’s just a convenient frame for amorous high
jinks. The show has a winning score including the big ballad number “Hey There”
to build the show around.Most important the cast has the voices to deliver those
tunes starting with male lead Brian Carlucci.He plays the new superintendent,
Sid Sorokin, who at first seems all business until he melts under the charms of
union grievance committee chairwoman Babe Williams (Rhianon Cowden).They skirt
over the impediments to their romance with a line or two and some striking
singing — Cowden is a fine match of Carlucci.
| Rhianon Cowden and Brian Carlucci performing in ‘The Pajama Game’ |
The factory is all
a-thither over the union’s demand for a 71/2-cent an hour pay increase. Late in
the show “Seven-and-a-Half-Cents” celebrates jus how much that can amount to, if
you’re hopelessly optimistic.The owner Myron Hasler is played with comic
gruffness by Leroy Morgan. “I know how to fight,” he declares brandishing
clenched fists. Morgan does a fine job in a role that in earlier years would
have gone to the late Bob Clark, a Players stalwart whose presence was yet felt
— memorial donations in his honor paid for the troupe’s new body mics. (His
daughter Anne Clark, another Players regular, is assistant director.)Sid and
Babe are on opposite sides of this fight. Babe sees this as a potential problem,
as do all the members of the audience. This being a musical, of course, this
drives the lovers apart and just as reliably back together in the end.The
complementary comic couple features the efficiency expert Vernon Hines (Michael
Barlos) and Hasler’s secretary Gladys (Kim Canfield). Canfield, even when
bespectacled with large pink-framed glasses, lets Gladys’s sexy side shine
through.
| Jordan McKinney’s Prez puts the moves on Gladys (Kim Canfield) |
Hines is right to be jealous, though another secretary Mabel (Deb
Shaffer) counsels him not be in “I’ll Never Be Jealous Again.” In her one
musical feature number, Shaffer strikes just the right tone as her character
steers the clueless Hines down the wrong path.Rounding out the randy ranks are
the philandering union president played by Jordan McKinney, who chases anyone
wearing a skirt, but meets his match in Mae (Jailyn Harris).Harris gets to show
her dance moves in “Steam Heat,” one of those numbers designed simply to let
cast members show off their dance moves. “Hernando’s Hideaway” fits in that
category as well.The large ensemble exudes a joyous camaraderie, which is always
welcomed but particularly apt when they are supposed to be a group of people
working toward a common goal.That goal for the union is getting that raise. The
goal for the cast is to put smiles on the faces of the audience. The union gets
its money, and the cast gets and deserves its laughs and ovation.
