Wally Doogan’s Holiday Revue
Wally Doogan’s Holiday Revue
By Larry Stallings
Directed by Angelyn Rhode
Starring Shelly Ackerman, Ashton Symonds and David Goldstone
The Princess Theater, Sanford FL</strong>
Here’s the conceit – we have a Community Theatre doing a play about a Community Theater producing a Community Theatre Christmas Program. Director Kathy (Symonds) struggles to unite a cloud of well meaning and occasionally talented people into a Heartwarming Holiday Experience. Her initial concept involves Todd (Goldstone) hamming up a bit of Hedda Gabler, but just in the nick of time the ghost of Wally Doogan (Ackerman) arrives to haunt the theater and give her some sage advice – drop the arty farty, and jerk the heart strings. The critics will crucify the pretentious Ibsen, but it would take a real Grinch to crucify preteens stumbling though “Angels We Have Heard On High.” The ghost of Wally Doogan is a joker, only Kathy can see him as he pinches butts, pull chairs out from under the self important, and rearranges script pages. He also has his own unseen ghost (Aunt Mildred) who hectors him from beyond the beyond. Today he may be the undead, but once he was a nice Jewish boy.
So how is this fresh new theatre? It has a huge cavernous space with plenty of comfy seats and the continuous drone of AC flowing in the background. Ackerman haunts with humor and panache, Symonds feels like she’s ready to push these weekend warriors though Les Mis next time out and Goldstone can ham it up nearly as well as his son down on the kiddy chorus. Even local burlesque artist Tara Corless appears in Mother Hubbard apron, but I won’t tell these children’s delicate parents. What really sold me on this production was the unexpected physical comedy Goldstone Senior pulled off. Stalling set it up in the text, Ackerman reinforced it with some slick misdirection, and when Goldstone pulled if off without injuring himself, it paid off as one of the funniest moments on stage I’ve seen in months.
There is promise here, The Princess is now the second full schedule show house in the cute bar heavy downtown Sanford historic district. Yes, some actors need microphones or better projections, a few gels wouldn’t hurt, and the occasionally out of phase singing will only work for the run of this show, but this is grassroots performance – local enthusiasts, a few pros up from the Parks, and a local playwright. I had fun, everybody on stage was having fun, and the Princess is off on the right foot.
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