The cabaret-style Garner Galleria is a perfect venue for Gregg
Coffin’s light, but tasty fare: “Five Course Love.”
The musical lets three talented, versatile actors strut their
stuff as they play 15 different characters with lightning costume
changes, impeccable comic timing and the skill to include the
audience in an ongoing joke.
Silly? Yes indeed, but these five mini-sketches serve up a fine
way to spend an evening or afternoon on days where gloom prevails
in the news.
New York director Roy Roderick, who helmed the Galleria’s very
popular “I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change,” returned to
Denver to direct and choreograph this entertaining tidbit. He keeps
one character on stage while the others switch costumes, which
makes the show flow seamlessly.
From off stage comes the opening number: a song by the cast that
tells you to turn off your cell phone, etc., etc. Nice small
touch.
A table and a couple of chairs are set on the small stage in
front of a background that starts with a Dean’s Old Fashioned
All-American Down Home Texas Bar-B-Que and cycles through Trattoria
Pericolo, Der Schlupfwinkel Speiseplatz, Ernesto’s Cantina and
finally, the Starlight Diner.
With each change of locale, members of the lively four-piece
band led by musical director Troy Schuh, don an appropriate hat as
they change musical style.
Sarah Rex as blond Barbie is mistakenly seated with the nerdy,
lonely Matt (Daniel Langhoff) by the overly bouncy cowboy/waiter
Dean (Jordan Leigh). But, she’s looking for Ken!
Next, Rex in a sexy red satin dress and black wig plays a mob
wife who’s meeting lover Gino, while Ernesto hovers. The music here
is operatic.
In each segment, crashing pots and pans signal “trouble in the
kitchen.”
Dominatrix Gretchen meets Klaus in the German spot, where waiter
Heimlich has a different agenda…
Finally, at Pop’s Starlight Diner, skating waitress Kitty, a
romance novel fan, finds her guy.
And they pull it all together in 80 minutes.
If you go:
“Five Course Love” plays through June 19 at the Garner Galleria
in the Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis, Denver.
Performances: 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays; 2 p.m.
Saturdays, Sundays. Tickets start at $25. 303-893-4100, www.denvercenter.org.