“When Bullfrogs Sing Opera” is a charming country comedy that just happens to take place in New York City. The lighthearted story centers on two sisters from a backwater Southern town. Laura Leroy provides this summary of the play’s premise.
“One of them moves to New York City, makes herself better, wants to be in high society,” Leroy said. “Her sister, who still lives in Bullfrog Waller, happens to show up on a day that the high society sister entertains some very important guests who can give her social status a big boost, and she does not want her sister there because she does not want the society people to meet her because she’s afraid of what they’ll think of her.”
Leroy’s character, Millicent, comes up with a clever subterfuge. She tells her guests that her sister is an accomplished actress, Rebecca Manderley, who is going to play a folk character named Coreen on London’s West End and needs to stay in character until the show’s opening.
Vicki Zielazny says playing country mouse Coreen is like the meringue on top of an ice box lemon pie.
“I’m enjoying the role,” Zielazny said. “It’s got a little fun things to say and little stories to say and I’m really enjoying it.”
While the Southern accent was no problem, Waller speak didn’t come naturally to the northern Pennsylvania native.
“That was a little difficult to do,” Zielazny conceded. “Just the way the words were arranged, and it took a little while to kind of delve into that and get it the way it needed to be ‘cause I wouldn’t normally talk that way."
Leroy and Zielazny want audiences to know two important facts about their cozy country comedy. It’s not a musical. In spite of the play’s name, no one, absolutely no one, sings opera.
Secondly Waller speak is contagious. So don’t be surprised if by the end of the play, you’re happy as a tick on a pig’s belly to be talkin’ like Jethro and Elly May.
MORE INFORMATION:
A "bullfrog waller" is a casual way to refer to an American bullfrog. The term likely comes from the bullfrog's large size and the way it often sits or "walls" near the edge of a body of water, particularly ponds and lakes.
The slang and colloquialisms are so immersive, Vicki finds herself lapsing into Waller speak when she’s no longer in character. “Bees and hornets” and “happy as a tick on a pig’s belly” have become part of her daily idiom.
'When Bullfrogs Sing Opera.'
“I have had to watch myself a few times, especially in the scenes where it’s just she and I having dialogue,” Leroy noted. “I have to make sure I don’t talk like her; that I maintain the society accent that I worked so hard on to keep – although, at the very end, in my final line, I let my accent out.”
The storyline is vaguely reminiscent of Aesop’s country mouse/city mouse fable. Millicent is now a big-city snob. Her sister, Coreen, on the other hand, chose to stay in the country…until now! How can Millicent keep her embarrassing past a secret when Coreen, as country as cornbread and grits, shows up spouting her backwoods sentiments to everyone at Millicent's party?
In the original tale, a proud town mouse visits his cousin in the country. The country mouse offers the city mouse a meal of simple country cuisine, at which the visitor scoffs and invites the country mouse back to the city for a taste of the "fine life." In the city, the two cousins dine on white bread and other fine foods, but their rich feast is interrupted by a cat which forces the rodent cousins to abandon their meal and retreat back into their mouse hole for safety. The town mouse tells the country mouse that the cat killed his mother and father and that he is frequently the target of attacks. After hearing this, the country mouse decides to return home, preferring security to opulence or, as the 13th-century preacher Odo of Cheriton phrased it, "I'd rather gnaw a bean than be gnawed by continual fear."
The two mice become sisters in Henryson's “The Taill of the Uponlandis Mous and the Burges Mous.” In the Scottish version of the fable, the country mouse envies her sister's rich living and pays her a visit, only to be chased by a cat and return home, contented with her own lot. Four final stanzas (lines 190–221) draw out the moral that it is better to limit one's ambition and one's appetites.
In Playwright Carl L. Williams’ modern retelling, Coreen doesn’t envy her sister’s wealth or city lifestyle. To the contrary, she is content with her lot in life and remains true to herself, country witticisms and all. Yet, the message nonetheless comes across, in the guise of social climbing Millicent, that it is better to limit one’s ambition and social appetites than to resort to deception and artifice.
“It’s a heartwarming show,” Leroy said. “It’s different. It’s different from any show I’ve ever seen. Millicent and Coreen have a strange relationship, but by the end of the show they actually become very close. That was really neat to watch, and as we did the show and as I read the script, it’s funny and it’s heartwarming.”
“When Bullfrogs Sing Opera” has two interesting subplots.
The first is the contrast between Millicent and her son, Patrick (played by Jake Bennett). He’s different, but just as pretentious as his mother.
“I think it’s kind of funny that Patrick actually turned out how I wanted to be, as my character wants to be, the way that he is,” Leroy observed. “And my husband in the show is so even-keeled we joked that he is the sane to my crazy because Millicent is just super high strung and she’s just always very well put-together and when everything is going on, he’s like, ‘Yeah, whatever.’ So they’re very much opposites attract. So he’s like the sane to my crazy.”
By contrast, Stephanie {Rosie DeLeon) is the inverse of her high society mom, Frances (Ellen Gonzalez). Frances is reserved and, yes, snooty. Stephanie, on the other hand, is hot blooded and tempestuous. Her mother describes her as a “highly moral girl who doesn’t act that way.” Stephanie transforms the would-be pompous Patrick into a poetry-spouting, equally red-blooded boy. Their scenes together are delightful and between her command of the stage and ersatz command of Patrick, she steals every scene in which she appears. She continues to develop as a formidable comedic actress on the Southwest Florida boards.
Laura LeRoy was last on the Cultural Park stage in the role of Berthe in “Boeing Boeing.” Her stage credits include Marlafaye Mosely in the “Savannah Sipping Society,” Polly Benish/Lady Margaret in “Play On!” and various musical revues including “Jersey Girls,” “The Spectacular Christmas Revue” and “Reveille Revue,” all for Cultural Park Theatre. Other roles include the Stepmother in “Into the Woods,” Elsa in “The Sound of Music” and Mary Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Leroy’s previous directing credits include “Nana’s Naughty Knickers” and “Beware the House on Haunted Hill,” which she co-directed.
Leroy is a Wisconsin native but moved to Cape Coral in August 2017 and now owns and operates Southern Siren Sweets dessert shop. When not onstage or whipping up something sweet, she spends time with her husband and two dogs.
Vicki Zielazny was last onstage at Cultural Park Theatre in the role of Martha Ann Fox in “Southern Fried Funeral.”
Rosie DeLeon has appeared often on the boards at various Lee County venues. Her stage credits include Annelle in “Steel Magnolias” at Fort Myers Theatre, Bridget Charles in “Nana’s Naughty Knickers” at Cultural Park Theater, TWA flight attendant Gloria in “Boeing Boeing” for Cultural Park Theatre, Lilly for The Studio Players in Jonathan Caron’s “Need to Know” (for which she also served as its Assistant Director), Corrie Bratter for The Studio Players in “Barefoot in the Park,” P.B. in “One Slight Hitch,” Lauren in “Circle Mirror Transformation” for The Studio Players, Officer Pudney in Neil Simon’s “Rumors” for New Phoenix Theatre, Linda Johnson in Lab Theater’s production of Deborah Lake Fortson’s “Body & Sold,” Feste in Lab’s production of Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” and Elaine in “Calendar Girls.” She also played various parts in The Rauschenberg Project Play (which plumbed many of the important local issues faced by 12- to 24-year-old members of Southwest Florida’s LGBTQ community, including domestic violence, bullying, employment discrimination and homelessness).
Rounding out the cast are Max Rousseau as Brian, Ellen Gonzales as Frances and Doug Brown in the role of Andrew.
“When Bullfrogs Sing Opera” sunsets this weekend with performances on Friday, May 30 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, June 1’s closing 3 p.m. matinee.
Support for WGCU’s arts & culture reporting comes from the Estate of Myra Janco Daniels, the Charles M. and Joan R. Taylor Foundation, and Naomi Bloom in loving memory of her husband, Ron Wallace.