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By the Book: Performance Number Twenty-Three

And the closing weekend begins... We start saying goodbye to our various company members, with tonight being the final show for Chase and Jay, pictured below. Joining Chase and Jay were Kate and I, and together we created one of the odder but more playful shows of late.

Chase got the musical ball rolling as Eddie, a pharmacist with big dreams of becoming the general manager of his CVS. Sadly, his boss, Mrs. Johnson, had an incompetent son, Robert, who despite his fascination and addiction to the various pills in the store, received the promotion instead, thereby throwing Eddie into disarray. Complicating things further was the elderly Mrs. Cunningham (no relation) who had apparently developed a little crush on our hero. How could Eddie get his life back on track? Jay then gave us the likeable Jeff, a good-natured fellow with a loving sister, Jinny, and nephew, Jimmy, who looked up to him. Sadly, his adventurous brother-in-law, Jim, was a wayward spirit, and when Jeff discovered that Jim potentially had another child, Jeff was put into a moral fix. Should he tell his sister and nephew or not? Kate's Ashley, a young woman with a disturbingly affectionate role-playing live-in cousin, Phil, provided our next episode. As her mother went through a messy divorce and mid-life crisis, Ashley's homelife became more and more uncomfortable. Her loving Dad, provided a possible out, but would he really get that job that would give him the money he needed to get a new place for them both? Lastly, I was Mike, a young man who spent a lot of time in the library cramming, much to the dismay of the highly territorial librarian, Heinrich. The apple of Mike's eye, Martha, motivated him to higher levels of learning, but when the cool French kid, Pierre, finally noticed him, Mike decided to leave behind his world of books for the real world of flesh and blood. Would Pierre, however, turn out to truly be a friend?

There were some fun story developments in our act one, and Chase had a particularly strong night in terms of fun characterizations. Mike ended up taking the vote, and the story followed his quest for love and life. Heinrich started to stalk his former book-borrowing customer, while Pierre wooed away the fickle and ever-spinning Martha. When Heinrich enlisted Ashley's construction-worker Dad (by kidnapping his daughter), things became particularly complicated. (So much, in fact, that the company had a tough time keeping the story straight!) Mike slowly realized that he needed the power of the books to help him out of his fix (despite an earlier "paper bite") and eventually the might of the written word (in the form of a rolled up blueprint) foiled the evil Heinrich, who was then stapled to the floor of the CVS as ultimate punishment. While a little convoluted, the act was playful, with Jay giving a fun show-stopping number about drug addiction with Robert in support, and Kate having some charming moments rushing from one character to another. I also enjoyed a musical duet with Chase's geeky role-playing character late in the act, and as is typically the case, Chase gave us a slew of quotable quotes throughout the evening, such as "I've got a girlfriend--albeit imaginary," and "These staples are hindering my escape to Argentina."

Despite a confusing story, and a few too many slower numbers in the second act, the show had a highly enjoyable energy and was received well. We found some fun games, such as spinning poor Kate's Martha around all the time, and made it through smiling! I also enjoyed introducing the band as Sticks Dickerson and Fingers Rhinehart.

And so sadly, it's goodbye to Chase and Jay. Any audience or company member memories of favourite moments with them on stage...?

Two shows to go. My mother-in-law will be in the house on Saturday. No pressure!!

Your the-end-is-nigh Director, David C.