You're not really an Insider until you experience one of the Pretty Good Talent Company's musical comedies. It's sort of a rite of passage. I'm proud that after seven months of working for The Insider, I can finally say I am a real Insider. I have Bill Twibill of “Ask the Elders” fame to thank for this.
Bill, as some of you may already know (since we've been covering this event ever since The Insider existed), is the director of the yearly show held at Havenwood-Heritage Heights. Katie accompanied me to the Pretty Good Talent Company's Feb. 26 performance of “Music on the Merrimack.” This year's premise, from what I understand anyway, was that all the performers are on a cruise ship called the S.S. Methuselah and are here to perform various musical and comedy acts for us, the audience.
Speaking of audience – it was a full house. When Katie and I first arrived at the retirement community, there was a line of people at the door, waiting to get in. I overheard one woman saying something along the lines of “I thought you said we could go in now? When can we go in?” I was certain the crowd was going to grab a nearby bench, hurl it into the door and flood into the room where the performance was being held. In fact, the “security” (by security, I mean this one sweet-looking elderly woman) was so strict, that Katie and I almost didn't get in. We knew Bill had reserved front-row seats for us, and he told us to ask for him upon our arrival. Well, we asked for him and the woman seemed skeptical (many people must drop Bill's name) and replied with, “We're not letting anyone in yet,” and then blocked the door with her body.
Katie explained that Bill had reserved seats for us, and the woman finally relented and let Katie in. Just Katie. The woman then strategically placed her body in front of the doorway once again, so I couldn't get in.
“Um,” I murmured. “I'm with her.”
She either didn't hear me or was pretending not to, so Katie spoke up as well.
“She's with me,” Katie said, nodding in my general direction.
The woman finally let me in and I was triumphant at last. They run a tight ship over there.
Katie and I took our seats, and eventually the rest of the crowd came bursting through. I noticed a group of people sitting to the right of me, all dressed up in cruise gear like captain's hats, leis and Hawaiian shirts. I looked a little farther into the crowd and saw a woman in cowboy gear. She must have missed the memo, I thought.
I learned she didn't, though. She was part of the cast. When the full company got on stage to sing the opening number, “Cruising Down the River,” I noticed several others in crazy getups, such as three women in wedding gowns and two women dressed as nuns.
None of this seemed to make sense, but when “Cruising Down the River” ended with the entire cast pulling out kazoos, I realized I was okay with that.
I began to connect the dots as the show went on. For example, the nuns were part of the “Nuns of the Run” comedy act with Mary Lou Fuller playing Sister Holly Lewya, Kay Amsden playing Sister Merry Lee Onward and Vera Dunkley on the piano as Sister Julia Child of God. The nuns were a clear crowd favorite, with several chuckling at such jokes as “I'm like a snapdragon, half of me has snapped and the other part is dragging,” and several others that are not appropriate to repeat in this family paper.
Then, in the musical act performed by Betty Strong, Connie Hull, Martha Ballou, Katie Gregg and Ellen Little, I spotted the cowgirl I saw earlier. Apparently she did get the memo. This act had five cowgirls, or cowladies, lip-syncing along with the song “Open Up Your Heart” in little-tiny childlike voices. I admit, it was quite cute to see these women swaying back and forth and mouthing the words, “So let the sun shine in, face it with a grin. Smilers never lose, and frowners never win.”
The best part of the skit, though, was before they even began singing. One of the cowladies sassily let the audience know she was ready for the music by saying, “Alright, hit it laptop man!” Laptop man would be Casper Kranenburg, also of Elders fame.
My personal favorite was the three women (Barbara Porter, Harriet Caton and Gloria Neary) dressed in wedding dresses and lip-synching “Chapel of Love.” Their facial expressions alone were hilarious, and their over-the-top wedding gear just added to the fun.
It wasn't all lip-synching – there was real singing and plenty of piano playing, too. We were even lucky enough to hear the kazoos once again during the full-cast closing number, “Show Me the Way to Go Home.”
After the show, treats, fruit punch and coffee were served in the café. While Katie and I were in line to get our cookies and punch, one woman behind us smiled and said, “Now, that was a good time, wasn’t it?” Katie and I both nodded our heads, agreeing. I wanted to correct her and say, “Don’t you mean pretty good time?” but I had cookies to eat.
