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'Dirty work' brightens your day
Heaven’s to Murgatroyd - curses on the villain!
This weekend audiences can attend the Port Lavaca Main Street Theatre’s summer melodrama, Dirty Work at the Crossroads, and for several hours be transformed to the beautiful Connecticut farm of the Widow Lovelace (comically played by Hollie Ragle) and experience the trials and tribulations of her beautiful daughter Nellie (Taylor Shelly).
Nellie, an innocent country girl, is pursued by a villainous city slicker, Munro Murgatroyd (Steve Bales, who also directs the classic melodrama scribed by Bill Johnson). Munro is a summer boarder at widow’s country cottage on the Mill River. He shamelessly makes advances towards the naive Nellie, despite the fact that he already has a wife in Ida Rhinegold (Jennifer Bednorz) the belle of the New Haven Music Halls.
Nellie’s stout-hearted swain, the humble blacksmith’s son Adam Oakhart (Aaron Pina), quickly has his reputation tainted when Ida uses her feminine charms to seduce him into looking at her “pretty ankles” while Nellie watches from afar. Heart-broken, Nellie is tricked by Ida to agree to run away with Munro to the “big city” - and she gets the young girl to put her intentions in writing.
When the widow’s rustic hired man, Mookie Maguggins (Phoenix “Rusty” Henderson), gets curious and opens the letter before it can be delivered to the villain, the widow learns of her daughter’s involvement with Munro.
The widow, who has been poisoned by the villain (who hopes to marry Nellie and gain control of the family farm and sell it for a large profit to the new railroad coming through the area), asks Adam to read the letter to her. Adam, in a truly honorable and stout-hearted act, reads Nellie’s letter to himself first and changes the words to soothe the dying widow who dies in her daughter’s arms. But, distraught by Nellie’s betrayal, the son of a blacksmith turns to drink.
His plans foiled, Munro returns to the big city and cast his net for a richer mark in Leonie Asterbilt (Jacquelyn Campbell), daughter of Mrs. Upson Asterbilt (Joyce Shafer) the wealthy widow of the late Wall Street financier. But Munro vows to get even with Adam and Nellie and continues to hound them throughout this hilarious, over-acted dramatic farce. Mookie and the Asterbilt’s French maid (Rene Mutchler) have a romantic interlude - Ida is murdered (or is she) and the blame is laid on Adam by Munro - Nellie, who comes to Adam’s aid and eventually marries him and has his daughter, Little Nell (Ashley Mutchler), even though her husband is doomed to be hung, sells out to the railroad.
And before the villian gets what is coming to him (evil, after all, does not pay in the long run) there are a variety of delightful songs of yesteryear performed by the cast including: “All That Glitters Is Not Gold,” “I Saw Esau,” “Bohunkus,” “The Eastern Train,” Yankee Doddle,” “Wait ‘Til The Sun Shines Nellie,” “The Old Cockoo Clock That Hangs on The Wall” and “Nobody’s Darling.”
And, as an added bonus, in the fashion of the old-time melodramas the whole tale is accompanied by the able piano antics of Calhoun County ISD Associate Director of Bands, Bob Coats.
The lavish scenery is literally a work of art by local artist Cathy Sayre and her assistant Barbara Campbell and, combined with the simple country farm set built by master set-maker Ragle and the wonderful period costumes hand-made by master seamtress Schaefer, the whole package will aid in delivering patrons to a time long ago when damsels truly were distressed by evil villains and had to be saved by stout-hearted men of goodwill and courage.
Please do yourself a big favor - escape this weekend (or next) to the New England countryside, have a good belly-laugh, and leave with a song in your heart - you’ll be glad you did!
And please, bring the whole family to this classic, summer melodramatic performance on the Main Street Theatre stage - and help keep live theatre healthy and well in Calhoun County.
This weekend audiences can attend the Port Lavaca Main Street Theatre’s summer melodrama, Dirty Work at the Crossroads, and for several hours be transformed to the beautiful Connecticut farm of the Widow Lovelace (comically played by Hollie Ragle) and experience the trials and tribulations of her beautiful daughter Nellie (Taylor Shelly).
Nellie, an innocent country girl, is pursued by a villainous city slicker, Munro Murgatroyd (Steve Bales, who also directs the classic melodrama scribed by Bill Johnson). Munro is a summer boarder at widow’s country cottage on the Mill River. He shamelessly makes advances towards the naive Nellie, despite the fact that he already has a wife in Ida Rhinegold (Jennifer Bednorz) the belle of the New Haven Music Halls.
Nellie’s stout-hearted swain, the humble blacksmith’s son Adam Oakhart (Aaron Pina), quickly has his reputation tainted when Ida uses her feminine charms to seduce him into looking at her “pretty ankles” while Nellie watches from afar. Heart-broken, Nellie is tricked by Ida to agree to run away with Munro to the “big city” - and she gets the young girl to put her intentions in writing.
When the widow’s rustic hired man, Mookie Maguggins (Phoenix “Rusty” Henderson), gets curious and opens the letter before it can be delivered to the villain, the widow learns of her daughter’s involvement with Munro.
The widow, who has been poisoned by the villain (who hopes to marry Nellie and gain control of the family farm and sell it for a large profit to the new railroad coming through the area), asks Adam to read the letter to her. Adam, in a truly honorable and stout-hearted act, reads Nellie’s letter to himself first and changes the words to soothe the dying widow who dies in her daughter’s arms. But, distraught by Nellie’s betrayal, the son of a blacksmith turns to drink.
His plans foiled, Munro returns to the big city and cast his net for a richer mark in Leonie Asterbilt (Jacquelyn Campbell), daughter of Mrs. Upson Asterbilt (Joyce Shafer) the wealthy widow of the late Wall Street financier. But Munro vows to get even with Adam and Nellie and continues to hound them throughout this hilarious, over-acted dramatic farce. Mookie and the Asterbilt’s French maid (Rene Mutchler) have a romantic interlude - Ida is murdered (or is she) and the blame is laid on Adam by Munro - Nellie, who comes to Adam’s aid and eventually marries him and has his daughter, Little Nell (Ashley Mutchler), even though her husband is doomed to be hung, sells out to the railroad.
And before the villian gets what is coming to him (evil, after all, does not pay in the long run) there are a variety of delightful songs of yesteryear performed by the cast including: “All That Glitters Is Not Gold,” “I Saw Esau,” “Bohunkus,” “The Eastern Train,” Yankee Doddle,” “Wait ‘Til The Sun Shines Nellie,” “The Old Cockoo Clock That Hangs on The Wall” and “Nobody’s Darling.”
And, as an added bonus, in the fashion of the old-time melodramas the whole tale is accompanied by the able piano antics of Calhoun County ISD Associate Director of Bands, Bob Coats.
The lavish scenery is literally a work of art by local artist Cathy Sayre and her assistant Barbara Campbell and, combined with the simple country farm set built by master set-maker Ragle and the wonderful period costumes hand-made by master seamtress Schaefer, the whole package will aid in delivering patrons to a time long ago when damsels truly were distressed by evil villains and had to be saved by stout-hearted men of goodwill and courage.
Please do yourself a big favor - escape this weekend (or next) to the New England countryside, have a good belly-laugh, and leave with a song in your heart - you’ll be glad you did!
And please, bring the whole family to this classic, summer melodramatic performance on the Main Street Theatre stage - and help keep live theatre healthy and well in Calhoun County.
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| PL Council OKs |
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