By Arlene Bachanov

Daily Telegram

 

Sun,  Sep 14, 2008, 06:00 AM EDT

ADRIAN, Mich. -

 

As soon as the Croswell Opera House announced its fall-winter season, I started reading up on the opening show “The Great American Trailer Park Musical.” I’m hardly in the minority by saying this show was a completely new one on me; although it dates back several years, it just went out on tour the first of this year and it’s safe to say a lot of even die-hard theater types haven’t seen it.

 

From what I read, I arrived at the theater on opening night prepared to not like this show very much at all.

 

I was surprised.

 

Of course, it’s safe to say that the show is hardly up there in the pantheon of (pun intended) “great American musicals”; while the writing is clever, to say nothing of very funny, it’s not exactly literature. It’s also very safe to say that this is definitely not a show for children or, indeed, for anyone who isn’t comfortable with adult humor and offensive language. And while the show does take a tongue-firmly-planted-in-cheek view of all the stereotypes of trailer park residents, and along the way makes fun of some common theatrical devices (with lines like “I feel a dream sequence coming on,” you know the show doesn’t take itself very seriously), those stereotypes are still there.

 

But even with all that, this is a show with a lot of good-natured humor and, yes, a lot of heart. And as is the case with anything directed by Doug Miller, the production values are high, the acting is tight and the cast is top-notch.

 

That extremely talented (to say nothing of picture-perfect) cast is made up of Carol Vendemo-Ruff as Betty, Joyce Cameron as Lin, Kyrie Bristle as Pickles, Stephanie Jass as Jeannie, Pete Stewart as Norbert, Jamie Sloan as Pippi and Jesse Montie as Duke. All of them throw themselves into the sheer goofiness of this show with gusto (and, in the case of Sloan, playing the “exotic dancer” Pippi, with the considerable bravery it takes to do an onstage strip-tease) and are lots of fun to watch. And while not all of the actors’ vocal work is the greatest, there is plenty of really fine singing too.

 

Betty, Lin and Pickles serve as the show’s “Greek chorus,” narrating the story for the audience and acting out parts of the action. Jeannie hasn’t left her trailer in years because she developed a severe case of agoraphobia when her baby was kidnapped. Norbert, her husband, is trying to coax her out of their trailer with Ice Capades tickets.

 

Into this setting comes Pippi, the dancer who’s hiding from her boyfriend, the dimwitted Duke. She moves in next door to Jeannie and Norbert, and the lonely Norbert begins a relationship with her. When Duke finds out where she is, he shows up at the trailer park ... and gets a real surprise.

 

It’s all amazingly silly. And, yes, there is the language issue; the show certainly has its share of words you wouldn’t hear on broadcast TV, although the argument could be made that the words are there for a reason; Lin, for example, goes to great pains to dispel the “trailer trash” myths to the audience, and then lets loose with a string of expletives, contradicting everything she just said.

 

But get past that, and don’t think too hard about the shallow storyline, and the show is actually really a hoot. It’s worth seeing for the strength of the acting and for the great sight and verbal gags alone.

 

In addition to directing the production (which clocks in at just an hour and 45 minutes even with intermission), Miller provides the set design with every bit of his customary attention to detail. The set is breathtakingly complete, all the way down to the plants around Jeannie and Norbert’s trailer and the electric meters on the pole (the toilet in the yard IS a little odd, though). And given what we in the audience know shortly into the story about Jeannie and Norbert’s baby, the children’s toys around their trailer are a really poignant touch on Miller’s part.

 

Costume designer Susan Eversden likewise does an outstanding job in outfitting her cast with all the flowered pants and big jewelry and hula shirts one would expect (and an Elvis costume, which makes no sense at the time but is a nice bit of foreshadowing). Todd Schreiber music-directs a small combo (three people plus him) that does a very spirited job with the music, which runs the gamut from ’80s pop to country-western to a gospel sound — some of it poignant, some of it very funny; listen carefully to the lyrics to “Flushed Down the Pipes,” for example, and hear how Mr. Clean and the TidyBowl Man figure into a story of love gone wrong. And Kerry Graves provides some really great, very imaginative choreography that adds a lot to the show.

 

No, great theater “The Great American Trailer Park Musical” is most assuredly not. But hugely entertaining it is.

 

The show continues at 3 p.m. today, at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and at 3 p.m. Sept. 21. Main floor and lower-balcony tickets are $25 for adults, $22 for senior citizens, and $20 for students 18 and older. Upper-balcony tickets are $20 for adults and senior citizens and $15 for students 18 and older. For reservations or more information, call the Croswell at 264-7469 or go online at www.croswell.org.

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