The Great American Melodrama always welcomes its audience in with a certain amount of fireside charm, from the live piano music to the warm popcorn and other treats served up by the actors in the bar line before the show even gets started. You always feel welcome and taken care of.
Part of that welcome comes in the role the audience gets to play in each performance, that of the cheering, laughing, booing, and hissing mass that helps move the story forward with a collective reaction to the scenes panning out on stage. This style is especially important in more classic melodramas, which the current repertory production, A Witless Rogue, certainly is.
The play was introduced as a “classic” melodrama, which means there are certainly villains, heroes, and moments of romance that demand a big sigh of approval from the audience. The play does have a feel of age to it. It was originally penned as An Arrant Knave by Steele MacKaye, a 19th century playwright and actor. The Great American Melodrama’s Eric Hoit adapted the play, updating it a bit for modern audiences, and directed the show as well.
A Witless Rogue tells of a small principality in Europe called Moreno, where the lordship is in question and is vied for by the questionable Duke Philippo (Philip David Black). The tale opens up not in a princely hall, but rather a humble cottage.
Here we meet Hugo (Philip Bolton), who appears a humble soldier, and Paulo (Seryozha La Porte), a hunter. Paulo lives in the house with his sister, Rita (Emily Chatterson), and their stepfather Vico, (Philip David Black), but Hugo is a guest in the home.
Hugo and Paulo share some stories together. Paulo details a harrowing encounter in the woods with a wild boar, which brought him wounded to a castle nearby, where he met a woman who instantly captured his heart, Laura (Chelcie Abercrombie). It’s a verbose story, but La Porte tells it with lively gusto, breaking through the dense language with his spirited delivery.
Hugo, however, reveals to Paulo that he has come to stay because of a mysterious message he has waited to receive for 20 years. Hugo was raised by a soldier in a Spanish castle his whole life, and taught a code of chivalry, but never knew his true name or destiny. The message awaits him in Moreno, he tells Paulo, where he is destined to meet a lady with a secret, who will reveal his lineage and identity.
Paulo’s sister, Rita, arrives, and enough is exchanged between Rita and Hugo that we learn there are some powerful feelings between the pair. When Paulo and Rita’s stepfather, Vico, arrives too, we learn that the siblings fear him, and that Vico is a desperate man who might lose his home.
Just then, soldiers are heard crashing through the wood outside. Hugo is doubled over laughing at the sight of one man who clearly doesn’t know what he’s doing, getting all tangled up in brambles. This character bumbles into the home, demanding drink and a place to sit. This is Captain Chiqui (Toby Tropper), and the title character, as the forgetful and naïve officer is truly an “arrant knave,” and a “witless rogue,” we find out.
The Captain is on order from Duke Philippo, to find the sneaky traitor Torriani (Mike Fiore), and asks the group for their help locating the villain. Torriani, however, strikes up a deal with the desperate Vico.
The tale continues in a new scene, the convent at St. Rosalia, where Laura learns from her nurse, Luca (Louise Barcellos), that she is descended from nobility herself, and that the villainous Duke Philippo hopes to come and force her into marriage that very night. The ladies immediately begin hatching a plot with the help of Rita, who arrives on the scene, and of course the easily manipulated Captain Chiqui aids them in helping Laura escape.
A Witless Rogue takes some time to set up its plot, but once everything is set in motion, the story is engrossing. The Melodrama’s dynamite cast knows just how to handle such a story as well, so every little nuance of emotion—from comedy to peril—is handled expertly.
The evening closes out with the Villains’ Vaudeville Review, which is arguably worth the price of admission alone. There are appearances from Dr. Evil, Cruella De Vil, Captain Hook, and Batman and his villains, all singing, dancing, and yucking it up on the Great American Melodrama stage, with musical accompaniment by the nimble-fingered Nate McClure. The melodrama provides a fantastic evening of live entertainment, and the food isn’t bad either, so don’t hesitate to grab a ticket to A Witless Rogue, or the repertory production of Under the Boardwalk.Â
Arts Editor Joe Payne was nearly doubled over laughing during the Villains Vaudeville Review. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 21-28, 2016.
