Naples Norris Center is taking a deep dive into Florida’s sea of surreal with Compton & Bennett’s latest comedy hit, “Straight Outta Florida: Throwin’ Shade on the Sunshine State.” In this 90-minute slice-of-life romp, Betsy Bennett and Rick Compton play six of their most popular characters to poke fun at swampland scams, snowbirds, HOAs, Florida flea markets and the state’s impenetrable traffic, all capped off with a jaunty earworm titled “The Alligator Alcatraz Rag.”
Compton & Bennett have been performing original stage works for more than 25 years. They are best known for “Assisted Living: The Musical” and “A Cracker at the Ritz.”
Their next performance of “Straight Outta Florida” is Jan. 27, with ensuing shows every other Tuesday through April.
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Compton & Bennett have delighted sold-out national audiences with social satire for years. They have written the book, composed the score, and produced more than a dozen original musical comedies with casts up to seven and scored for bands with as many as eight pieces.
A 90-minute song-and-sketch comedy, “Straight Outta Florida” is their latest production. It features some of their most loved characters.
There is Earlene (“or as my Daddy used to call me, ‘Earl, the girl’”), a fifth generation Florida Cracker, who was the title character in “A Cracker at The Ritz,” the longest running show in Southwest Florida. In “Straight Outta Florida,” Earlene and her piano-playing sidekick Gazpacho (“He’s cooler than the soup and always around … just like the humidity!”) check in on Florida’s checkered past, singing about swamp land scams where the Noah’s Ark Special gets two lots for the price of one, the blessings of storm debris and when “Snow Bird Come, and He Won’t Go Home.”
Florida’s own John “for the Morgans” has chased ambulances into all 50 states. In “Straight Outta Florida,” he shows his class…by bringing lawsuits into the theatre.
Compton & Bennett import retirees Ben Younger and Naomi Lipshitz-Yamamoto-Murphy from “Assisted Living: The Musical” into “Straight Outta Florida.” These days Naomi loves to hate on the state she’s grown to love as she gleefully hunts hubby No. 4. Ben, a retired Catskills comic, delivers one-liners and plays ragtime piano. Naomi outwits an HOA. They one-up each other with absurdities from Florida flea markets.
The show is bookended by Betsy and Rick as their somewhat normal characters, with Betsy offering a list of PG-appropriate obscenities that help her get through Florida traffic. They cap it all off with the jaunty earworm, “The Alligator Alcatraz Rag”.
Tickets are available at www.eventbrite.com or call the Norris Center at 239-213-3049
Visit www.StraightOuttaFlorida.com for more information.
Betsy Bennett is a lifelong theater denizen, with more than 100 productions to her credit before Compton & Bennett. Betsy has played roles such as Dr. Livingston in “Agnes of God,” Katherine in “Pippin” and Mama Rose in “Gypsy,” for which she received 32 consecutive standing ovations. She is a product of Albion College’s theatre program and of Playwrights Horizons (Andre Bishop) in New York.
Rick Compton is a writer, a musician and creative. He has won multiple awards for magazine feature stories including humor columns, and has played piano and musically directed dozens of pit bands. He created and franchises Via Colori, a street painting festival held hundreds of times in 17 cities, and raising more than $5 million for social causes.
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.
