2004 Year in Review

TLP's Dearly Departed is a hilarious comedy

Poor Bud, the southern family patriarch, has a stroke and is “dead before he hits the floor”. Mama Ray, his wife played by Rebecca Leopold, describes him as “mean and surly”. They haven’t had the best marriage but “what will poor Mama Ray do without Bud?”

Next comes the family. Bud, a non-church-goer, has a Bible thumping, scripture reading sister Marguerite, played by Denise Ewers. Ewers, a teacher from Dixon High School, reminded me of a combination between Betty Davis and Meryl Streep. She has a good-for-nothing redneck son Royce, played by Kyle Post. His goal in life is to get off unemployment, get married, and start on welfare.

Bud and Mama Ray have three children. First is Ray Bud (Courtney Crouse) a no-nonsense auto mechanic and his motherly peacemaking wife Lucille (Vanessa Panerosa). Then there’s his brother, Junior (Evan Enderli), who spent all his money on a parking lot cleaning machine. “Who knew people didn’t need clean parking lots?” Junior is all dressed up for the funeral including his camouflage baseball cap. Then there is Junior’s drama queen wife Suzanne (Alexandra Ausman). They have a tribe of unruly kids. They drive to the funeral from their doublewide trailer. Lastly is Delightful, played by Bennett Ostroff, Bud and Mama Ray’s late surprise. With only two lines all night, Ostroff steals the scene by just eating a bag of potato chips. She is funny beyond words.

Mama Ray explains visitations with her southern drawl, “They come to comfort you, but they end up comforting themselves. By the end of the night you want to cut your throat.”

The humor is not slapstick or silly. This family just makes you laugh at who they are and what they think and say. We started laughing from the beginning with The Joy of Life Singers and laughed all the way through the planning, visitation, and funeral for poor Bud.

Award winning Guest Director, Chuck Smith, is a resident director of Chicago’s Goodman Theatre. “The characters are so funny and true-to-life that this show is literally a laugh a minute,” states Smith.

We were sitting in the back and we had to strain to hear some of the actors. They didn’t use any sound system for this play and several actors like the elderly friend at the visitation with the falling support hose were hard to hear but we were laughing so hard at her stroke-victim husband (Bernard Leopold). She would have had to have a powerful voice to overcome the laughing. Also the scene with the two brothers talking on the front porch could be louder. If you have a hard time hearing make sure you sit up close otherwise there weren’t a lot of lines we missed.

I took my two teenage children and husband who all gave it a thumbs-up. Don’t miss this delightful comedy, which runs until June 26 with two matinees.

Coming July 1st is the 60’s comedy Hair. We already have our tickets bought. Magic Owl Children’s Theatre will present The Little Prince July 6, 8, 9 & 10 at 2 pm.

by Barb Benson, theCity1.com
June 19, 2004