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By Cameron Small
Hometown Weekly Correspondent
What do you get when you mix an agoraphobe, a toll collector, a stripper, the stripper’s ex-boyfriend and a sassy Greek chorus? What if you throw in country-rock and blues music? Well, then you get “The Great American Trailer Park Musical,” the fall musical that’s kicking off the Walpole Footlighter’s ninety-second season.
Set in Starke, Florida, in the trailer park of Armadillo Acres, audiences meet Betty (Kathleen Hardigan of Cumberland, RI), Lin (Heather Vieira of Norton, MA), and Pickles (Juliana Small of Medfield, MA). These three women serve as a Greek chorus, providing commentary and narration on the action happening among the other characters. Meet Norbert (Ken Golner of Leominster, MA) and Jeannie (Tracey O’Farrell of Walpole, MA)—formerly high school sweethearts, their relationship gets more and more strained as Jeannie hasn’t stepped foot outside of their trailer in twenty years. Add to the scene Pippi (Ashley Harmon of Hyde Park, MA), a stripper on the run from her ex-boyfriend Duke (Kenneth Densmore of Coventry, RI) who eventually catches up to her. What happens then, well, that’s the play.
Director Marianne Phinney described “The Great American Trailer Park Musical” as “both bawdy and crass.”
“Bawdy and crass” seems as good a description of the show as any. After all, there is a strip and pole-dance number in the show. Even in “Gypsy,” a show about strippers, actors don’t actually strip on stage. Not the same case for “The Great American Trailer Park Musical.”
Even in shows like “Sweeney Todd,” where characters enjoy killing, none seem to go about it with the same gusto as Duke does in “The Great American Trailer Park Musical,” who is described as intentionally going after animals to make roadkill after his song entitled “Roadkill.”
Most shows would stop after one innuendo—“The Great American Trailer Park Musical” has no restrictions, giving two lewd innuendos from Betty and Lin, before Pickles finishes with: “I don’t know what y’all are talking about, but it looks to me like them two people are gonna eff.” As to which characters are in question, you’ll just have to go and see the show to find out. If you have small children, you might want to put them to bed first.
The show opened two weeks ago, and this weekend is the last chance to see it. Remaining performances are Friday, November 4 and Saturday, November 5 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, November 6, at 2 p.m. Tickets can be ordered online at www.walpolefootlighters.com, at the box office of the theater in person, or by calling the box office.
The rest of the Footlighter’s 2016-2017 season includes “Don’t Dress for Dinner,” which goes up in February 2017, and “Lost in Yonkers,” which will be performed in May 2017.
