In this season of submitting income tax returns, the stars of Lumberjacks in Love are filing their axes.
The Great American Melodrama’s latest production centers on a group of lumberjack bachelors in a small Midwest community, circa 1912.
Hilarity ensues after a bizarre misunderstanding between two of the lumberjacks results in the purchase of a mail-order bride. Antwon Mason plays Minnesota Slim, the reluctant groom-to-be, whose bachelorhood is about to end once his new bride arrives. Mia Mekjian plays Rose, the mysterious bride whose twisty backstory comes to light by the end of the show.
Minnesota Slim and Rose aren’t the only two characters in the musical—which is full of catchy songs by composer James Kaplan and lyricist Fred Alley—who keep the audience guessing whether they’ll actually pair up.
Sydney Ennis, a PCPA alumna in her debut role with the Great American Melodrama, plays a protagonist simply referred to as The Kid. The other lumberjacks are under the impression that The Kid, who keeps her long hair in a bun hidden under a cap, is a young man—think Roberta, disguised as a cabin boy, in Disney’s Swiss Family Robinson.
There are hints that one of the lumberjacks, Moonlight (played by Nathan Miklas with dashes of somber subtlety in an otherwise comical romp), could be developing romantic feelings toward The Kid, which leads the woodsman to ponder his sexual orientation.
Meanwhile, The Kid has a crush on Minnesota Slim, so she plots to impersonate the mail-order bride before Rose’s expected arrival date.
Shakespearean scheming and “will they, won’t they” antics aside, Lumberjacks in Love, onstage through March 25, fits the Great American Melodrama’s prerequisite for the trademark laugh-a-minute, punny humor the venue has become widely known for over the decades.
Some of the show’s funniest moments are thanks to one lumberjack in particular: Dirty Bob (Toby Tropper). During the song, “Rub a Dub Dub,” the lumberjacks line up, each with an old-fashioned pioneer-esque washtub in hand, which they rest on the stage floor and squat down over for some scrubbing. Just like his name would suggest, Dirty Bob sidesteps showers, and it’s apparent from the other lumberjacks’ unsurprised reactions that he’s been boycotting baths for a while.
I won’t give away the tale behind Dirty Bob’s refraining from rinsing, except that it has to do with a blue bar of soap that has a Rosebud-esque impact on his psyche. Dirty Bob leads the show’s most memorable musical number, “Someday I Will Be Clean,” in which he sings about when he’ll finally be able to bathe again.
The way this sequence escalates reminded me of The Lion King’s “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King”—except here, “king” gets swapped with “clean.” Throughout the scene, elements like a makeshift crown and robe are added to Dirty Bob’s wardrobe to make him appear more king-like.
If there is at least one lesson to be learned from Lumberjacks in Love, it’s thanks to Dirty Bob: To be clean is to be king.
Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood is on his soapbox. Send soap opera recommendations to cwiseblood@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Feb 23 – Mar 2, 2023.