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Show Kathy Jo Tucker breathes life into dinner theatre By Steve Christensen Express Assis'orti Editor The Bottle Hollow Dinner Theatre opened last week. I attended very apprehensively. ap-prehensively. After all, dinner theatres can't even make it in Salt Lake City, how is one supposed to make it in Uintah County? Nels Carlson is this year's director. A note from him in the program said this is actually the longest running seasonal dinner in Utah. It first opened open-ed in 1980, and has returned each summer sum-mer with a different Neil Simon comedy. com-edy. All of the talent is local. So, with my apprehensions, I proceeded pro-ceeded through buffet line and ate my dinner. It was adequate, but for the ticket price of $13.50 or $14.50 I felt it should be. The coffee was good. This year's production is "Come Blow Your Horn." It is a basic human relationship play. Something Neil Simon has become famous for in some circles. "Come Blow Your Horn" takes place in a bachelor apartment in New York City in the 1960s. Alan Baker, played by Darrel Jones, is a playboy of the highest magnitude. He is also a con artist, and as his father says, "A bum." Buddy Baker is Alan's younger brother, played by Donny Sawyer. Both Alan and Buddy are involved in the family business, which appropriately ap-propriately enough, is manufacturing plastic fruit. Alan is a salesman, Buddy Bud-dy does something in the plant. Well. Buddy is tired of living at home and comes to move in with Alan, although he is very apprehensive about the whole thing. Peggy Evans, played by Kathv Dart, is a dumb blonde. (What would two bachelors do without a dumb blonde living upstairs?) Connie Dayton, played by Jill Elliss, is the intelligent in-telligent girl who is destined to turn Alan's life around. Harry Baker is the father, boisterous, flamboyant and the en-trepeneur en-trepeneur of the family plastic fruit fortune. He is played by Stewart Mortensen. Last comes Momma Baker, and the life of the play, Kathy Jo Tucker. Now, I don't know about you, but $27 is a lot of money for my wife and I to spend on an evening out. We're used to going go-ing for pizza. But to splurge occasionally, occa-sionally, I take my hat off to Kathy Jo Tucker for giving me my money's worth. The beauty of Kathy Jo's talent lies not in what she did, or even in the words Neil Simon told her to say, but in the way she did it and the way she said it. That may sound like a trite statement, since all great actors and actresses have a knack of performing in their own special way. That is what makes them great. Some roles are just made for certain people. Henry Fonda went his whole life without an Academy Award, until his part in "On Golden Pond." The old codger in that movie was meant to be Henry Fonda, or should I say Henry Fonda was meant to be the old codger in that movie. I wouldn't put Kathy Jo at the top of the acting profession just yet, but I sincerely doubt there are may women in the world who could have brought to Mrs. Baker what Kathy Jo does. The progression of the play is much what one would expect who is familiar with Neil Simon's work. Alan plays around too much and Buddy can't handle han-dle his new found freedom. Finally the father fires both of them. Peggy is just the girl upstairs who believes everything anyone tells her, and is willing to do anything, I repeat, anything, to move along her hopeless career as an actress. Connie gives Alan the ultimatum, either marriage or nothing. When Alan won't commit, she takes off, and in her absence makes him realize how much he loves her. Meanwhile, Buddy assumes all of the characteriestics of his "Bum" brother. Mrs. Baker is determined to keep her family together, and when it becomes apparent she is losing them, she decides to move in with the boys. An answering service she is not, as the phone keeps ringing and she cannot find a pencil. The reactions and facial expressions are priceless. "Hello. ..'No, this Alan's mother". .."Now why would I kid about a thing like that?" Trust me this time, you had to be there. In the end Alan goes back to work, even without his father's knowing it and lands a big client they have been after for years. Connie comes back and Alan decides to marry her. Both Alan and Buddy are rehired at the plastic fruit business. Mrs. Baker is ecstatic. Who knows what happened to Peggy. I had never before seen Kathy Jo perform, but I hope to see her perform again. While I thoroughly enjoyed the play, and the acting of Kathy Dart and Donny Sawyer, Kathy Jo made the play worth the splurge. |
