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http:// --> Weather Forecast Ashland, Oregon HOME Archive Backpage Business Classifieds Columnists Contact Us Forum Hot Topics Local Issues Most Viewed Nation & World Obituaries Online Games Opinion/Editorial O-Zone Photo Galleries Place an Ad Rate Card Readers Polls Revels Real Estate Guide Shakespeare Special Sections Sports Subscribe Valley & State Video Weather Etcetera --> Movie Preview --> Hottest Galleries: March 25, 2008 Trash is a bash By Roberta Kent Tidings reviewer The Off-Broadway show “The Great American Trailer Park Musical” runs through April 20 at Oregon Stage Works in Ashland. Susan Cowper | For the Tidings It's silly. It's sexy. It's an evening of absolute frothy fun with music and dancing and wacky wigs and tacky costumes. It's another wacky Off-Broadway musical. It is "The Great American Trailer Park Musical," with music and lyrics by David Nehls and book by Betsy Kelso. And, if you're thinking it doesn't sound like the usual offering from Oregon Stage Works, you're right. I'm not sure how artistic director Peter Alzado got his hands on this outrageous spoof, but he has fashioned something delightful. Even the play's not-so-nice jabs at Deep South stereotypes and middlebrow culture are done gently and with affection. The jokes are broad but the characters are sometimes touchingly real. It's a hot afternoon at Armadillo Acres, a down-at-the-heels trailer park in Starke, Fla. Sunning themselves in aluminum-and-mesh lawn chairs, with reflectors tucked under their chins, are "The Girls." There is Betty (Tamara Marston), the brassy owner/manager. There is wise-cracking Lin (Mia Chiaromonte), short for "linoleum" because she was born on a kitchen floor. And there is bosomy, ditsy Pickles (Heather Harlan), so called because of constant hysterical pregnancies. These ladies tell it like it is — mostly, that they haven't been getting much lately. With their outrageous outfits and big blond hair (and shoes to die for), "The Girls" act as narrator for the melodrama unfolding before us. ("This Side of the Tracks.") Norbert (Joe Caron) and Jeannie (Jennifer Miller-Brian) were high school sweethearts joined together in a shotgun wedding. Due to an unfortunate perm (think Wolfman Jack) and the unsolved kidnapping of their infant son, Jeannie has been unable to leave their trailer home for the last 20 years. Her world and vocabulary have been daytime television. For their upcoming 20th anniversary, Norbert has purchased tickets to the Ice Capades and he's using them as a lure to get Jeannie to come out. ("One Step Closer.") Then, suddenly, Pippi enters Armadillo Acres. An exotic dancer of a certain age, Pippi (Wendy Spurgeon) is on the run from her creepy Oklahoma City boyfriend, Duke (J.R. Storment), who gets high by sniffing magic-marker pens. Quicker than you can spit, Pippi moves into the trailer next to Norbert and Jeannie and lands a job as a sex kitten at the Litter Box Show Palace, dancing for hooting bozos with pompadour hair and mullets. ("The Buck Stops Here.") Sure enough, Norbert and Pippi become — ahem — close. After all, she's a stripper and he works in a tollbooth. Both of them make their living taking one dollar at a time. Norbert feels just terrible about what he's doing. But then, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, and poor Norbert hasn't been done in a really long time. Will Norbert dump Jeannie for Pippi? Will Duke track them both down and manage to shoot them — after he scrapes the road kill off the bumper of his truck? Is Pickles actually pregnant this time? And where did OSW find three matching Elvis capes for "The Girls" for the big 70s disco number that closes Act I? But, of course, this is a musical. It all ends well, if improbably, with a rousing finale ("Make Like a Nail and Press On.") Alzado has directed all of this with many double takes and much audience participation and he is ably abetted by Wendy Spurgeon's deliciously outrageous choreography. And his cast can really sing and dance. These are all consummate professionals and they make the flimsy plot and rather pedestrian score appear a lot better than it really is. The offstage band has Aaron Blenkush on piano, Chris Matthews on drums, Matt Matthews on various types of guitar and Bill Fischer on bass. The bright, tacky costumes are courtesy of Sue Cowper with a credible trailer park set by Doug Ham. I don't know if this is a new trend for Alzado and OSW and if we are going to get more Off-Broadway hi-jinks along with theater classics and cutting edge drama. But it's a nice change and kudos to Alzado for taking the chance. "The Great American Trailer Park Musical" plays at OSW until April 20, when it moves on to the Cascade Theatre in Redding, Calif., for performances May 8, 9 and 10. 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