[NEohioPAL] Berko review: FIVE COURSE LOVE @ Actors' Summit

[Roy Berko]

FIVE COURSE LOVE,  a pleasant musical review at Actors’ Summit

Roy Berko

(Member, American Theatre Critics Association)

--THE TIMES NEWSPAPERS--

Lorain County Times--Westlaker Times--Lakewood News Times--Olmsted-Fairview 
Times

COOLCLEVELAND.COM

Neil Thackaberry and MaryJo Alexander, the producers at Actors’ Summit, 
know their clientele.   Mature, somewhat conservative and loyal describes the 
group.  The loyalty has been built on years of the producers picking the right 
shows to appeal to this demographic.  Musical reviews, light comedies, and 
non-controversial scripts are the norm.  Their latest offering, FIVE COURSE LOVE 
fits the bill well.

In 90 minutes, with no intermission, 3 actors play 15 different characters in 5 
different restaurants, on the hunt for true love.   Scene 1 takes place in Dean 
s Old-Fashioned All-American Down Home Bar-B-Que Texas Eats, where a blind date 
goes wrong.  At the Trattoria Pericolo, a mob wife has a secret rendezvous 
behind her husband’s back with devastating results. In the scene at Der 
Schlupfwinkel Speiseplatz, a waiter, a sexy German siren, and her kept man 
discover that they are all dating each other. Yes, gasp, a ménage à trois.  In 
Ernesto’s Cantina, a Mexican restaurant, a bandit and his rival battle for the 
hand of the beautiful Rosalinda, a hot salsa-woman. And at the Star-Lite Diner, 
a romance novel reading waitress pines for her true love and gets a little help 
from Cupid in making her dreams come true as the jilted blind dater from Scene 1 
finally comes full circle to find love.  Throughout the evening, “There is 
trouble in the kitchen.”
FIVE COURSE LOVE is slight summer fun.  The little bit of tantalizing double 
entendre humor brought giggles, the finding of true love resulted in “aws” of 
glee, and all in attendance seemed to have a good time.
Gregg Coffin’s serviceable score combines pop, light rock, and ethnic musical 
sounds.  None of the songs are well known and have such titles as Morning Light, 
Risk Love, The Ballad of Me, and Hey Cupid.  These are names not likely to 
appear on Billboard’s top ten list. 
The show, which is co-directed by Thackaberry and Alexander, moves along quite 
well, but needed more exaggerated farce to get across the intended 
ridiculousness of various scenes.  This was especially true in Der Bumsen 
Kratzentanz and If Knicky Knew.
The three person cast is highlighted by Keith Stevens, whose premiere number is 
A Very Single Man, concerning a lonely geek who really wants to find love.  His 
facial and body reactions on Nicky Knows were delightful.  The pretty Aubrey 
Caldwell, has a nice voice and was delightful in I Loved You When I Thought Your 
Name was Ken.  Stephen Brockway performed several nice duets, but struggled with 
various characterizations and accents.
Marcia Snavely’s musical execution was well done.
CAPSULE JUDGEMENT: FIVE COURSE LOVE is a musical review which gets an acceptable 
production at Actors’ Summit.  It’s the kind of show that should please their 
targeted audience.

For tickets to FIVE COURSE LOVE, which runs through July 24, call 330-342-0800 
or go to actorssummit.org. 

Actors Summit’s 2011-2012 season is:
WOODY GUTHRIE’S AMERICAN SONG (10/6-30)
WINTER WONDERETTES (11/23-12/23)
BULLY (1/19-2/5)
GIRL’S GUIDE TO COFFEE (2/23-3/11)
THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING ERNEST (3/29-4/22)
I LOVE YOU, YOU’RE PERFECT, NOW CHANGE (5/10-6/3)
ROUTE 66 (6/21-7/29) 
Roy Berko's blog, which contains theatre and dance reviews from 2001 through 
2011, as well as his consulting and publications information, can be found at 
http://royberko.info.  His reviews can also be found on www.coolcleveland.com 
and www.NeOHIOpal