Culture Writer
From roughly the late 1880s to the early 1930s, audiences across the U.S. and Canada were entertained by itinerant vaudevillians. Performers ranged from singers, musicians, dancers and actors to orators, jugglers, athletes and trained animals. In the spirit of this venerated genre, the Found Theatre is staging Fred Blanco’s Sullivan & Kyle’s Vaudeville Revue through Saturday, June 28.
Sitting in the front row on opening night was Millicent Mercer, a bright-eyed, nearly 96-year-old, who, having lived through vaudeville’s heyday, is perhaps the best qualified critic. Throughout comedian Gad Roman’s performance, she giggled at his often painfully corny jokes— groaners such as “What do you call a cow with two legs?” Lean beef. Or: “What is a cashew?” The noise a nut makes when it sneezes. Played by Paul Sharaba in a bowler hat and plaid pants and vest that screamed, “Here I am!” , he was actually funnier between jokes when he chided the audience with “Catch up when you get a chance” or “That was a time joke. Laugh when you’ve got the time.”
Bassington the Enigmatic (Scott Ratner), the top-hatted, black-caped magician, segued from Gad Roman’s eye-rollers to his own lines that prompted loud guffaws. He had some help from a female audience member who volunteered to select a card for one of his tricks but then couldn’t identify it because, as she remarked, she “couldn’t count.” Perhaps she had stopped by a speakeasy on her way to the theater! He closed his act with a verbal sleight of hand: “I’ve had a wonderful time!.This wasn’t it, but!”
Tap dancer Terri Mae (Terri Carlos), complete with black-fringed skirt, pearl necklace tied in a knot and glitzy headband, pleased the crowd— and especially Millicent— with her Charleston moves. Ukulele player Taylor Dickinson captured the Depression-era longing for something better in her performance of “In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.” This wistful tune of a hobo’s dreams of a land where there’s “a lake of stew” and “the hens lay soft-boiled eggs” would have resonated with vaudeville audiences who doubtless had felt hunger pangs too. Millicent confirmed this, confiding that her twin brothers Dale and Gale had got into a tussle over the last piece of meat at the dinner table one night in the late ’20s. Dale had stabbed Gale’s hand with a fork (or maybe it was the other way around) when the latter tried to claim the morsel. “That wasn’t right,” Millicent admitted, shaking her head, “but then times were tough.”
Times seemed tough for Millicent when Chris Egan balanced a six-step wooden ladder on his bottom teeth a few feet from her. She was definitely in the potential crash zone, but she never flinched. Perhaps she’d survived a few of Dale’s fork attacks too. Egan also balanced a broom on his nose and tongue, a sledge hammer on his chin, and the sharp end of a saw just below his eye.
As with vaudeville of days long past, these acts were unrelated and only held together by the antics of the two masters of ceremony, the slick-dressing, extravagant-talking, sometimes tap-dancing Beau Sullivan (Fred Blanco), who is also the playwright, and his sidekick, the mute, ever-longing-for-pretty-girls-and-missing-out Kevin Kyle (Matt Riggle). Kyle eventually attracts the attention of the darling but ditsy, candy-selling Sweetie (Autumn Melody Thomas), who has her part down to a tee. Her amazing tresses, short skirt, black fishnets, unstable heels and a box of goodies held in place with a neck strap are the hallmarks of the classic cigarette girl.
But before that happens, Kyle is beset by a mischievous sprite (Kat Borelli) whom only he seems to see. She attracts him with her lollipop-licking and her Shirley Temple curls, then stomps on his toes and runs off. These slapstick antics provide a thread of plotline that ties the evening together.
In short, Sullivan & Kyle’s Vaudeville Revue is not the stuff of deep and meaty after-performance talks, but rather, in Millicent’s apt summation, “just good, old-fashioned fun.”
Sullivan & Kyle’s Vaudeville Revue continues at the Found Theatre through Saturday, June 28. Performances tonight and tomorrow evenings are at 8pm. General admission is $15 and $10 for children under 12. Those who come dressed in full vintage attire from the ’20s through the ’40s will receive a $5 discount. For information and reservations, call (562) 433-3363 or email info@foundtheatre.org . The Found Theatre is located at 599 Long Beach Blvd. Two hours’ free parking in the Sixth Street parking garage located just west of the theater.
