DAG's “Drop Dead” will leave you doubled over with laughter

Tony Primeau (left) as Chaz Looney, Craig Carrico as Dick Shalit, James Taylor Jr. as Phillip, Gary Regal as Victor LePewe, Mike Fay as Alabama Miller and Kayla Aue as Candy Apples. 

By SUE SUCHYTA

            “Drop Dead,” a murder-mystery comedy presented by the Downriver Actors Guild, will leave you double doubled over with laughter. Yes, it is that funny – and it is even more appealing to anyone who has ever participated in a community theater production and knows what can go wrong both onstage and behind the scenes.

            The show, which opened April 12, continues a two-weekend run at Out of the Box Theatre, 1165 Ford Ave. in Wyandotte. Remaining show times are at 3 p.m. April 14 and at 7:30 p.m. April 19 and 20, closing weekend.

Adult tickets are $12, with a $10 rate for students and seniors. Group rates are available. To order, call (313) 303-5269 or go to www.downriveractorsguild.net.

            Directed by Lucinda Chavez of Allen Park, the show is similar to “Noises Off,” in that it is a show-within-a-show. Act I is the show’s final dress rehearsal, while Act II is opening night.

            The humor is in the exaggerated stereotypical characters and both their predictable and unexpected blunders.

Loretta Bullock (right) steals the show as Constance Crawford. Also in the cast are Carol-Ann Black (left) as Mona Monet, Kayla Aue as Candy Apples and John Sartor as Brent Williams.

            Loretta Bullock of Southgate plays an aging actress, Constance Crawford, who steals the show at some points. Her character cannot hear her cues, and her eyesight is not much better, so the stage manager decides to give her an earpiece to feed her lines, cues and blocking. However, we in the house hear the instructions, and Crawford responds to lines and stage directions in an unpredictable fashion, with hysterical results.

Gary Regal (left) as Victor Le Pewe, Craig Carrico as Dick Shalit, Rob Eagel  as Sol Weisenheimer and  Kayla Aue as Candy Apples.

            Gary Regal of Wyandotte is entertaining as flamboyant director Victor LePewe, as is James Taylor Jr. of Lincoln Park as his overly devoted assistant Phillip (a role played by Denny Connors of Allen Park the second weekend).  

Kayla Aue (left) as Candy Apples and Tony Primeau as Chaz Looney.

Rob Eagel earns laughter for crusty character Sol Weisenheimer’s quirks. Kayla Aue of Gibraltar, herself a vivacious redhead, plays his daughter Candy Apples, a stereotypical blonde bimbo who mouths the other actors’ lines and gets to practice both bewildered expressions and provocative poses with amusing results.

Carol-Ann Black (left) as Mona Monet, Loretta Bullock as Constance Crawford and John Sartor as Brent Reynolds.

Carol-Ann Black of Southgate plays Mona Monet, a former sitcom diva, with John Sartor of Canton as Brent Reynolds, a lifelong regional theatre actor who begrudgingly does commercials to keep himself solvent. Both are very funny in their egotistical attempts to save the train-wreck of a play, especially when they try to cover up the bungling of the others. Sartor is hysterically funny in his delivery of symbolic line about snow throughout the show, which is supposed to be a recurring theme throughout, but which ends up becoming an ongoing gag as his character tries valiantly to salvage what is left of the performance.

Michael Fay of Taylor is amusing as playwright Alabama Miller, probably so named in a whimsical reference to playwrights Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller. His character tries to re-inject symbolism and mysticism into his play, to which the cast and crew roll their eyes and do their best to ignore.

            Others earning laughter in the wacky cast are Tony Primeau of Southgate as Chaz Looney and Craig Carrico of Detroit as Dick Shalit.