"BackStage Broads" is the latest comedy by Joe Simonelli and Lori Sigrist.
The play is about a 60-something woman who inherits a vacant theater from her uncle and decides to revive it with the help of three of her neighbors. She doesn’t have much money, so they have to build the set themselves. And to save on licensing fees, she hires a director who’s written a musical loosely based on George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion.”
Simonelli provided context.
“The director says I [have] written my own take on the play. I call it ‘Pygmulian.’ It’s set in the old west about a mule skinner who tries to educate a Boston guttersnipe to be a proper, sophisticated frontier lady. So that’s the play within the play that happens in act two.”
Simonelli got the inspiration for the play, and its title, from six women who were building the set for a play that co-writer Lori Sigrist was producing at Lemon Bay Playhouse, where she serves as artistic director.
It’s vintage Simonelli.
“Nothing is really as it seems in this play,” Simonelli said, laughing. “There are plot twists galore.”
The comedy provides audiences with a glimpse into the shenanigans that go on behind the curtain as a small, frugal company rushes to put on a play.
“If you come to a lot of community theater but you really don’t know what happens backstage, you’ll probably want to see this show,” Simonelli said. “A lot of the terms will be explained to you that theater people use. It’s a fun show.”
“Backstage Broads” runs until mid-September. Shows are at 7 p.m. every Thursday through Saturday and at 2 p.m. on Sunday afternoons. Tickets cost just $25 and include coffee and dessert.
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Joe Simonelli and Lori Sigrist last teamed up to write "Half Baked," which recently completed a successful run at the Off Broadway Palm.
Simonelli writes what he knows about, and he has quite a bit of experience opening new theaters.
Cape Café Dessert is the third theater Simonelli has opened. He started with a little theater on Staten Island before moving across the Hudson River to open a dessert theater in New Jersey.
The set design crew at Lemon Bay Playhouse included the chairman of the board and two of her neighbors, both named Jackie and both with the same last initial.
“It was very confusing, so naturally two of the neighbors in ‘Backstage Broads’ are named Jackie S.”
In addition to plot twists and deep fakes, Simonelli’s plays are known for small casts, single sets and a modicum of props.
“I like to keep it simple, especially since I’m producing them all,” said Simonelli. And theaters will need to produce single-set, limited-cast comedies more frequently in the future to compensate for the loss off grant funding from local, state and federal arts and culture agencies.
Many Simonelli plays have been inspired by suggestions from friends, acquaintances and even strangers. However, his inspiration for “Half Baked” came when he saw a giant can of baked beans while walking through Wal-Mart with Sigrist, who is his significant other.
“It’s made me the most money so far, so I said to Lori, ‘Is there anything else in Wal-Mart that I can write about?’”
“Backstage Broads” is the second show that Simonelli has produced at Cape Café Dessert Theatre. Simonelli reports that feedback from audiences has been very positive.
“I had some trepidation about opening a theater in such a non-traditional venue as a dessert café,” he said.
The stage sits to one side of Durso’s Delights coffee and dessert bar.
“It’s not a big auditorium with seats. It’s more Greenwich Village-style. But so far, people are loving it. They love that you can get coffee and dessert. You can buy wine and beer, specialty coffees and light snacks. They just love the vibe.”
People love the vibe so much that most stay following the performance to chat with Simonelli and the rest of the cast and each other.
“Even at intermission, I give them little tidbits about how I wrote the play, plot points, and the like.”
Because of the intimate setting, patrons get to know each other. Some become friends.
“People who were strangers start making reservations together because they had such fun at the theater,” Simonelli noted. “’Hey, when are you coming to the next show. We’ll come then too.’ Everyone is kind of close to each other. It’s intimate. So you do get that book club type of vibe. You get to meet everybody. There’s only 36, 40 people max. So you kind of get to know everybody.”
The play stars Cape Cafe regulars Becky Nilson, Kristen Wilson, Sherrie Hepler, Iris Polanco, Susan Crater, Maryann Connolly, Catherine Jeanty and Joe Simonelli.
Tickets can be purchased online by visiting the website at capecafetheatre.com. or calling 239-363-0848 for more information.
For more on the theater, hear/read: "New theater in the Cape includes coffee and dessert in the price of admission."
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.