Playwrights: Andrew Hobgood, James Asmus and Will Cavedo; Music: Julie B. Nichols. At: The New Colony at La Costa
Theatre, 3931 N. Elston. Phone: 773-413-0862; $20. Runs through Aug. 9. Tupperware. Photo by Anne Petersen
The artistic forces behind Tupperware: An American Musical Fable just can't seem to make up their minds.
This world-premiere musical by The New Colony shows how Tupperware provided some 1950s suburban housewives a means of financial independence. But other times, the musical goes for the easy laugh by camping up the era's outlook and mocking the modest goals of conformist suburbanites.
The uncertainty extends to the show's structure. A couple of days after opening night, I received an e-mail from New Colony Artistic Director Andrew Hobgood soliciting my advice on whether they should add an intermission. I wanted to say, "Yes, the two-hour-plus show could do with an intermission," but I didn't feel it ethically right to dictate artistic decisions that must ultimately be made by The New Colony. ( Besides, this review should reflect the show as presented on opening press night. )
The 2005 PBS documentary Tupperware! seems to have been a partial inspiration. Tupperware! focused largely on Brownie Wise, the motivationally savvy saleswoman who perfected the "Home Party Sales" system of selling Tupperware ( she was so successful that the company stopped store sales and went exclusively with her methods ) .
But in the musical Tupperware, Brownie ( Meg Johns ) is just a supporting character to the newly widowed fictional housewife Delores Bird Clarke ( Mary Hollis Inboden ) . Brownie goads Delores to become her first home-party sales guinea pig, and the musical reductively narrows its focus from the worldwide scope of Tupperware to Delores and Brownie's attempt to win over one neighborhood in Kissimmee, Fla.
Tupperware's odd mix of informative seriousness and self-aware camp doesn't sit comfortably together in its script assembled by James Asmus, Will Cavedo and Hobgood ( who also directs ) . One moment you have Inboden's Delores in tears as she sing with the apparition of her late husband, Henry Clarke ( Kevin Stangler ) . The next, you have a trio of judgmental housewives being comically bossed around by the image-conscious Lilah Johnsonton ( archly played in female drag by choreographer Danny Taylor in a manner typical of Hell in a Handbag Productions' David Cerda ) .
Julie B. Nichols' new score is fun, though the few anachronistic power ballads stick out when compared to other tunes that fit more with the Eisenhower-era setting. Other good vocal work comes from the housewives trio of Nikki Klix, Tara Sissom and Thea Lux ( who is particularly hilarious as the orange-clad housewife who passive-aggressively stands up to Lilah ) .
Costume designer Nathan R. Rohrer has lovingly outfitted all the actors in pretty period outfits, while Jared Saunders does a good job with the musical direction.
But despite all of The New Colony's many admirable efforts, Tupperware just doesn't stack up stylistically. Too camp, or not to camp, that is the question.