Category: Musical Revues

Ain’t Misbehavin’ – Musical Revue – Seattle Musical Theatre

Opening night to "Ain't Misbehaving - The Fats Waller Musical Show." Didn't realize this was a musical revue ... not a musical. That's what I get for not reading up about what I attend! ?It's a shame the bad sound system setup distracted from the amazing voices.
09Opening night to “Ain’t Misbehaving – The Fats Waller Musical Show.” Didn’t realize this was a musical revue … not a musical. That’s what I get for not reading up about what I attend! ?It’s a shame the bad sound system setup distracted from the amazing voices.

Pump Boys and Dinettes – Musical Revue

Type: Musical Revue

Recommendation: Not really. If you’re expecting a musical, you’ll be sorely disappointed. It was more of a “musical revue” … so essentially a concert of songs you don’t know performed by people you also don’t know. Don’t get me wrong. It was very well done but just not what I was looking for.

Negatives: As mentioned above, there was no developed plot or storyline so it was basically a concert.

Story, Script, and Lyrics: There was no developed plot/story. Basically, it was about mechanics and waitresses singing country, folksy, honky-tonk songs about random things in their lives. I feel like good musical revues should have a decent storyline to follow.

Cast and Theater Company: Anything from Village Theater is top-notch quality with Equity Actors. All the talented actors played a wide variety of instruments.

  • Joshua Carter: Nothing too noteworthy with acting and singing except he had a lot of corny lines. But he had sick guitar skills. I was surprised to see him play the piano as well randomly in the show for about 10 seconds.
  • Sylvie Davidson: “Pretty little thang” had some great pep but was overshadowed by her sister dinette.
  • Sara Porkalob: Powerful voice took over the sister duo. They did color-blind casting on her character (she’s an Asian in a Caucasian role).
    Michael Feldman: Played an Elvis-like role like a pro lady’s man. Pretty entertaining.
  • Levi Kreis: Dashingly handsome pianist with great hair and crazy keyboard skills. Like Joshua he played guitar for about 10 seconds.
  • Olivia D. Hamilton: Bassist who didn’t really sing/talk or have a huge role. She was just worth mentioning because I’m pretty sure they did gender-neutral casting on her character, whose name is “Eddie” and is supposed to be one of the Pump Boys. Seattle seems to do this a lot.

Venue and Set: Everett Performing Arts Center is your standard high quality community theater. The set was pretty decadent but I expect no less from the Village Theater.

Music and Audio: Village Theater always has high quality audio engineering but they do love to turn the volume up. I’ll admit, it was so high that sometimes I was cringing. Many times the music also overpowered the actors. Score for non-synthesized piano and drums though!

Price: $$ – Moderately Priced at $45-65 from the Village Theater Website

Dates:

  • September 15 — October 23, 2016 in Issaquah, WA
  • October 28 — November 20, 2016 in Everett, WA

Seating: Assigned Seating

Link: http://www.villagetheatre.org/issaquah/pump-boys-and-dinettes.php