[NEohioPAL]Review of Church Street Players "Dearly Departed."

[Jeff Holland]

by Mike and Ike
rdoughnuts at yahoo.com

Actually, just Ike.  Mike didn't see this one.  He made the reservations but
he never showed up.  Probably forgot.  He's a lousy critic, a lousy human
being, and there will be shunning.

Anyway, so Friday night I got into my PT Cruiser and drove out to Uniontown
to see opening night of Church Street Players' "Dearly Departed" and I'm
just going to get this out of the way right now.

Go see this show!

If you're on this list, you know how to find theatres in this area.  If you
don't already know, find out, make reservations (It runs until the 17th) and
see this thing.  Take friends, family members, pharmacists, people you see
on the street with WILL WORK FOR FOOD signs.  Everyone who enjoys theatre
needs to see this show and I can tell ya why in one sentence.

It is not normal.

I really don't want to talk about the play or the actor's too much.  All I
will say is that the show is extremely well cast and you totally believe all
the characters (And there are many) you meet in this two hours, expecially
Delightful, played by Fran Hall.  She has three lines but she steals the
play hands down.

What I want to talk about is just the fact that this show is even being
done.  There seems to be this feeling in community theatres that the famous
non-threatening shows are the way to go.  Now there is nothing wrong with
this opinion.  They do bring in the money, but this really narrows the
chances of something a little darker, a little more dangerous getting
produced.

At first glance, Church Street does not seem like the type of theatre that
would do this type of show.  If you look at the myriad (Yes, I know what
myriad means) of posters from previous shows, you get the feeling the Judy
Garland and Micky Rooney would have loved this place (And that is not an
insult, just an observation).  The fact that they would be willing to take a
chance on a show with a corpse in ballet slippers and one of the sickest
endorsements for Kentucky Fried Chicken ever gives me heaps of respect for
them.  To Church Street, I say Hoofah.

Another big Hoofah goes out to director JT Buck and the cast (Including Brad
Lane,  Susan Kuhner, David Klainer, Susan Moffett, Charlotte Sentors, James
Cutlip, Tara Synder, the aforementioned Fran Hall, Jennifer Kowalcyzk, Vince
Morvatz {Playing, among other things, an absolutely Divine priest}, and
Stephanie Corbin Whew).  Now I took a look at the script (I was in Borders
and they didn't have the new Jane) and it is pretty much text and that's it.
These people did an amazing job of filling in gaps and adding visual jokes
that I'm sure the author's would kick themselves over for not having thought
of first.

This is a strange show, it's a slightly sick show,  but it is also
hysterically funny and you have not seen anything like it in some time.

Take the drive.  It's more than worth it.