How lucky are we, as 21st century people, to have the entirety of history, literature, and art to make fun of? The Great American Melodrama is great at delivering period piece—with all the necessary costumes, music, and props—but also with the sly wit of a contemporary humorist with a bag full of sharpened tools and classic tricks.
The latest production at Oceano’s famous theater is a hilarious send up of Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne that’s been retooled by playwright Mark Brown. Kevin Harris directed the show, which includes special effects, fight scenes, and lightening-fast costume changes.
The show opens with an introduction to the main character Phileas Fogg (Philip David Black), a 19th century Englishman who demands mathematical precision from everything, including the servant he has just fired. Hayley Galbraith plays the servant in question, in drag, of course, and this won’t be the first male she plays.
The show is handled entirely by five actors, who all manage to play 39 characters in two acts! This kind of skill and aerobic precision is something for which the Great American Melodrama is known. Steven Freitas, who played the lead in the theater’s last production, The Mark of Morro, is also put to the test, portraying almost every character Fogg comes across during his race around the world.
The story—if you haven’t read the Jules Verne classic or seen any of the film adaptations—really gains steam when Fogg makes a wager with a group of gentlemen that he can in fact make it around in the world in only 80 days. Billy Breed, a favorite both at the Melodrama and PCPA, plays not just the man he makes the wager with, but later is also a detective who mistakes Fogg for an infamous bank robber in Britain, and so tails him around the globe, trying to arrest him.
The newest addition to the Melodrama crew is Noah Kaplan, who plays Passepartout, the hilarious Frenchman who becomes Fogg’s new servant right before the wager is made. Kaplan is more than a welcome addition to the cast, providing a great amount of the show’s laughs with the way he delights in the characters antics, all with a cheeky grin from under his curly mustache.
As usual, the Melodrama’s cast and crew are constantly moving set pieces around to create the scenery that a trip around the world entails. Train rides are depicted with sound effects and the characters bumping up and down on their seats, a gag which doesn’t manage to get old considering how many trains the characters board, from India to America. When the rails come to an end, the group is forced to rely on a pachyderm for transportation, a very funny scene that involves an interactive set piece and plenty of cast-created sound effects.
The Great American Melodrama always provides a three-part show, with a chance to pick up some delicious items from the cast-manned snack bar during intermission, and always caps the night with a vaudeville review. I must say, the latest Technology 3.0 vaudeville review has to be the best in recent memory. As tech is on everybody’s mind, the show was topical and very funny.
From figuring out the nuances of getting a new cell phone, or Melodrama cast members taking selfies with the crowd, there is something for even the most tech-ignorant person to laugh about. The vaudeville’s finale is a delightful parody of West Side Story, but the two young lovers aren’t divided by race or class, but rather by the age-old battle of Mac versus PC. I’m not overstating things when I say that just the finale of the Technology 3.0 vaudeville review is worth paying admission multiple times—it is pure comedic gold in the hands of the Great American Melodrama.
Arts Editor Joe Payne loves railroad and computer humor. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 8-15, 2014.