Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, May 13, 1994 TAG: 9405130065
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-8 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By KAREN L. DAVIS SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD-NEWS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The good thing about ``Road to Paradise'' is that it never takes itself seriously, so you can sit back, laugh at the cornball jokes and enjoy it anyway.
``Road to Paradise'' is a premiere of an original musicial comedy written and directed by Steve Brown of Christiansburg.
The play is a tribute to the ``Road'' movies - ``Road to Rio,'' ``Road to Hong Kong,'' etc. - made popular by stars Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour in the 1940s and later.
The story opens in 1850 San Francisco, during the California Gold Rush. Cap Lillis and Horace Leslie, played by John Lawson and Ken Marshall, respectively, are two vaudeville song-and-dance men closing their run at the Embarcadero Theater. They represent the wise-cracking, coward-type characters popularized by Hope and Crosby.
Through a chance encounter with an old prospector, Cap and Horace acquire a map to the Paradise gold mine. The prospector asks them to deliver the map to his granddaughter just before he is killed by the evil Slade brothers, Bart and Spike (played by Nicholas Tinker and Michael Vaughn, respectively).
Soon, the Slade brothers figure out that the map got passed on to Cap and Horace, and the chase is on.
Meanwhile, Cap and Horace find the old prospector's granddaughter, Dottie Gayle Martson (played by Sharon Donohue). The Slade brothers meet up with Gold Kate Lawless (played by Nora Hansen) and ``The Boss,'' a mysterious, heavily disguised bad guy billed only as ``Himself.'' The bad guys contrive a plan for Gold Kate, posing under the guise of Kathryn Good, to ingratiate herself with the good guys and steal back the map.
This loosely laid plot meanders through several scenes and song-and-dance numbers that don't always seem to clearly connect. One such scene is a magic show by Malevolo, The Magnificent, played aptly by Clay Rogers. This character's importance to the plot advancement is not immediately apparent, but his magic tricks are entertaining nevertheless.
Some of the musical numbers, too, are truly humorous, most notably ``Plots, Plans, and Ploys'' and ``Bad Guys'' performed by The Boss and the Slades.
Overall, this production is a bit cumbersome in spots, but with some fine-tuning here and there, it has the main ingredients for a truly entertaining tribute to vaudeville, slapstick and screwball comedy.
Time periods seem occasionally inconsistent, and scene changes sometimes take a bit too long, but even in these respects, the play pokes fun at itself.
The effort is a respectable first full-length work for Brown, who is an office services assistant in the Office of Sponsored Programs at Virginia Tech and a choir director for St. Paul United Methodist Church in Christiansburg.
Brown has a bachelor's degree in percussion and music composition from San Francisco State University. He retired from the Navy as chief petty officer just before Desert Storm.
Now 44, Brown has written several one-acts, but ``Road to Paradise'' is his first effort at ``book, music and lyrics for a full-length play.''
A four-piece band accompanies the two-act play, with Ken Mulzet on piano, Aaron Oberg on bass, Matt Gardner on drums and Ed Turner on trumpet.
Other cast members include Bob Gribben, Jon King, Maureen Crumpton, Barbara Lloyd, Michael Creamer, Michael Newnam, Kelly Burfeind, Terry Hoffman, Shelly Wingfield and Todd Halwas.
``Road to Paradise'' continues May 14, 15, 19, 20, 21, 22, and possibly May 27-28, at the Playmakers Playhouse inside University Mall in Blacksburg. The May 15 show already is sold out. Performances begin at 2 p.m. on Sundays and at 7:30 p.m. on all other days. Tickets cost $7 for adults and $5 for students, senior citizens and children.
For reservations, call 382-0154 or 381-1913.
by CNB