Milquetoast British shoe salesman Harry Witherspoon yearns for adventure. Then he receives a telegram telling him he’s just inherited $6 million in diamonds from his eccentric American uncle. One catch: Harry has to take his uncle’s corpse on a Monte Carlo vacation to get the jewels.
“A lot of people are equating the show to ‘Weekend at Bernie's’ because there is a central concept that they're pushing around a dead body," Florida Studio Theatre's Ben Liebert acknowledged. "But the show has a lot more heart.”
“Lucky $tiff” actually predated that movie by a year. In fact, it’s loosely based on the 1890s song “The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo.” But the farce is a musical.
“It is kind of jazzy and very quirky and fun,” said Liebert. “It is not big power ballads and big epic music. It's character-driven and really clever and funny. You'll be tapping your toes even though you don't know the songs.”
The musical normally carries a cast of 12 or more. Not at Florida Studio Theatre.
“We have four ensemble members who play 30-some-odd characters throughout the play,” Liebert noted. “It's just an ensemble that creates this whole world despite there only being four of them.”
There is an element of intrigue in this production. A different celebrity guest plays the stiff each show.
“There's somebody that you probably see every day who will be guest starring in the show as the dead body,” Liebert said.
“Lucky Stiff” opened in the Gompertz Theatre on Nov. 5 and runs through Dec. 28.
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Witherspoon’s challenge is to pass off his dead uncle as a wheelchair-bound invalid companion. But there’s more. His uncle’s will specifies a sightseeing itinerary that the pair must follow to the minute. Otherwise, the entire fortune reverts to a canine shelter charity, the Universal Dog Home of Brooklyn, whose fetching representative, Annabel Glick, trails them in dogged pursuit, ready to pounce at any slip-up. (Yes, there dog puns galore.)
Glick has issues of her own. She’s very intense and driving. But she leads a joyless life, afraid to fall in love. But the character does get to sing heartfelt songs about dogs in despair.
The story includes a pack of eccentric characters. There’s the hyperkinetic low-class gunslinger Rita La Porta, her optometrist brother Vinnie, the sultry Dominique Du Monaco, the mysterious Luigi Gaudi and an assortment of sporty maids, waiters, maitre d’s and other European types.
“Despite all the wacky antics of the play, there’s such joy and love,” Liebert said. “It's very, very heartwarming and also really, really funny.”
Writer-lyricist Lynn Ahrens and composer Stephen Flaherty deliver witty and wonderful lyrics and breezy songs. Ahrens builds a comic twist into nearly every line and Flaherty provide moments in each song that enable the performers to shine.
“It’s got great music,” said Liebert. “Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens also wrote ‘Ragtime’ and Seussical,’ but this is a completely original score. They're incredible musical theater writers.”
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.
