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Bingo!
A pleasant night is in the cards with this Golden Apple production.
By Kay Kipling
Even if you’re not a bingo player, there’s something hard to resist when a cast member of the Golden Apple Dinner Theatre’s Bingo starts handing out cards and daubers for you to use during the show. Bingo isn’t really much of a game, you may think…but then again, you could win. Why not play along?
Fun and games: Bingo-loving friends brave a storm to get
to a bingo night that turns out to be full of surprises.
Fun and games: Bingo-loving friends brave a storm to get
to a bingo night that turns out to be full of surprises.
What holds true for the game holds true for this musical by Michael Heitzman, Ilene Reid and David Holcenberg. There isn’t much of a storyline, and most of the songs tend to be in that bouncy, inspirational pop vein favored by American Idol contestants—pleasant enough but forgettable. Still, the cast is fun to watch and the general message about friendship and forgiveness is certainly acceptable—so why not play along?
The premise is the kind that could easily be written on a cocktail napkin. Bingo diehards Vern, Patsy and Honey (Forrest Richards, Kyle Ennis Turoff and Stacie Bono) struggle through a hellacious storm to get to their bingo night. When they arrive, things start happening that remind them of a similar night 15 years earlier, when another player, Bernice (Angela Bond), was part of their group. Something happened that night to destroy a friendship, and when a young girl (Katti Powell) comes out of the storm looking for some bingo tutoring, suspicions start to grow about her true identity—and her motives.
A kindergartner could figure out what happens here, but that’s not really the point, of course. The point is to have an easy, entertaining, interactive evening; and for the most part Bingo delivers that. There are few moments with much originality (I guess the Act I finale, which somehow drags an amusing number from a would-be musical version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest into things, would qualify), but the cast has a lot of energy and likeability, particularly Richards as the stubborn Vern, who has to face up to her mistakes in order to keep her friends. Overall, the evening (about two hours with intermission) flies along quickly and pleasurably.
Bingo is onstage at the Golden Apple the goldenapple.com through Feb. 25; call 366-5454 or go to www.thegoldenapple.com.
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