Tuesday, August 26, 2025

Theatre Review--PUMP BOYS AND DINETTES

 


 


 What can you say when a theatre production melds with the audience perfectly? This afternoon’s viewing of PUMP BOYS AND DINETTES at the Amana Colony’s Fine Arts Center reminded me of how much I love live theatre and how much I admire a director and a group of actors who can captivate a full house of appreciative viewers on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

If you look at the set picture above, you can see what we saw upon entering the house. The show is unabashedly down-home country and the scene design is full of memory-jogging properties from a time now gone. There are no apologies offered for singing songs about  grease monkeys and waitresses who inhabit the Double Cup diner. As a matter of fact, a good share of the audience may have had a cup of coffee at a similar business in their own hometown this morning.

Repartee from the audience was encouraged and responded to by the supple cast members.  From the leads to the drummer, they all came through as the kind of good, hard-working, fun-loving, droll, and sassy men and women who served the nation’s highways before small towns were bypassed by the interstates. All of this went a long way toward building a fully satisfying texture for this actor and audience-centered production.

I also admired the choice to hew to the first off-Broadway performance and use standing and handheld mikes rather than individual glued-in-place lavaliers. This helped set the period as well as keeping the lyrics crystal clear and the instrumentation under good control. There was not need to add glitzy modern pulsating high-colored lighting effects. The ungelled instruments kept the production palette as subdued and real as the set, props, and costumes.  

Superior vocals were provided by Layton White and Deb Kennedy while Jeff Roush’s folksy patter and multiple guitar changes held everything together.  Tim Fees’ voice didn’t have the range of some others, but when he showed his skill with the harmonica and accordion as well as the keyboard, I was sold on his understated personality as the somewhat shy and unassuming guy who must always have been a part of the workers at any truck stop. it seemed to reinforce the sense that you didn’t need two tons of computer equipment, flashy tech effects, and gaudy costumes to set the perfect intimate tone for this show.

The topper came when the cast, in true community theatre tradition, trooped out to the lobby after the curtain call to mingle with the audience.  This was theatre as it was meant to be—full of heart, appealing to all ages, expertly designed, and performed with gusto. I will be in the audience for the group's next performance of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple in late September.   

                                                          Y’all Come Now!!

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