Things are about to blow up in the Armadillo Acres Trailer Park.
Seems that Pippi, a stripper on the run from her ex, is about to drive a wedge between Jeannie and her husband, Norbert, whose fondest wish is to get Jeannie out of their trailer, where she has been holed up, traumatized, since their baby was stolen years ago.
This tale of woe is the basis for The Great American Trailer Park Musical, which the Theatre Alliance will present starting Friday. The show, set in Starke, Fla., continues the Alliance's trend toward celebrating Southerners in all their eccentric glory.
The story will be narrated, director Jamie Lawson said, by a Greek chorus of three women who also live at Armadillo Acres. A live band will provide a soundtrack of pop, country and disco music. Southern-accented comedies, played in broad, stereotypical strokes, strike a chord with local audiences said Lawson, a Southern boy from Madison.
"I know of which I speak," he said.
Even though the characters in the musical are comedic to the hilt, they look and act familiar, he said.
"We see ourselves in these characters," he said. "There's so much truth in stereotypes. That's why we laugh at ourselves. If you can't laugh at yourself, you've got a miserable time ahead of you. Whether you're Southern, Caucasian, African-American, gay or straight, there are certain things that characterize that group.
"That's why it's funny."
When the musical opened off-Broadway, critics called it cute and fun, but it didn't run very long, Lawson said. A regional company in Charlotte presented the show and had to extend its run to meet the demand for tickets. He has seen shows in New York that focused on that city's culture, including taking the subway and dealing with the grind of life in a big city. While he appreciated the quality of the shows, he didn't necessarily "get" them, he said.
"I think it's a very regional thing."
This show will embody trailer-park lifestyle through hairstyles, clothing and culture. Expect to see women in Daisy Duke shorts, tube tops and big hair, and men in tank tops, baseball caps and mullet hairstyles.
Lawson ordered a bunch of pink flamingos for the trailer-park yards, and he needs a few more satellite dishes, he said. But it's all in good fun.
"We do a lot of these over-the-top shows," he said. "We want people to have fun." But he reminds the actors that while they may be playing exaggerated characters in outrageous circumstances, they represent real people with real problems that anyone might have. He wants the audience to empathize and sympathize with those characters, Daisy Dukes and all.
"If we have done our job right, this life is very real to the people watching us," he said.
■ Janice Gaston can be reached at 727-7364 or at jgaston@wsjournal.com
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