Sharknami the Musical?
Valencia College • Orlando Florida
Directed by John DiDonna
by Carl F. Gauze
Everyone dies, and it’s still laugh out loud comedy.
No one pays much attention to the news in this beachfront sandbar, so they miss the Jim Cantori build up to a massive hurricane bearing down right outside the front door. These shabby remnant of citizens and tourists are drinking hard and hoping for the best. There’s a preacher Reverend Buttkiss (Samuel Wetherbee) hanging with these sinners. He would love to save their souls, but the hard drinking refugees would prefer some help keeping the bar afloat, at least until the tide goes down. The shark-storm starts by killing a kid, and then works its way down the refugee pecking order, and soon enough the annoying preacher is replaced by a even more annoying shark. He wants to save your soul AND have your leg for dinner. Will they survive? Will the curtain go down before they run out of beer? And more importantly, will anyone hook up with any of these stereotypes?
It’s a pure exercise in nonsense. Director DiDonna told me he was looking for something light and fluffy after producing both chapters of Angels in America last season. I think he succeeded.
My favorite bad guy is the preacher. He would gladly sacrifice your butt and send you to Saint Peter by express mail. A close second is the peg leg bartender. He was as close to to sanity as anyone on this floating bar of doom.
Sharks are marked with black sheets and a splash of red paint, live humans are indicated by still having a limb or two attached. A Saturday morning sounding track moves the action along, and after 15 minutes or so, you’ll stop worrying about where the plot is headed. It’s a silly show, just right to forget your problems for an hour or so.
