Laughter is Still the Best Medicine: Pickle Me Tink at the Cape Rep

For anyone on the Outer Cape who has been feeling disconnected from life and humanity due to the results of the presidential election, Cape Rep Theatre is offering an opportunity to reconnect together and spend time simply having fun with its well-timed world première of Seton Brown’s Pickle Me Tink, now playing through December 8.

Slapstick-style humor has never been my cup of tea, but this show is completely, wonderfully, laugh-out-loud-until-you-cry perfect for this moment—and does this cast ever deliver!

The story is the stuff of a hundred silent films, with Marx Brothers, Abbott and Costello sprinkled throughout, and a little I Love Lucy thrown in for good measure. Nicola (Jess Andra) is in love with Hugo (Ari Lew) but has long been betrothed to a wealthy older man, Max (Anthony Teixeira) and will lose everything if she backs out of the marriage. But with the able assistance of her maid Marguerite (Trish LaRose), Nicola makes a plan to do just that.

Max spends his time counting his money and is eager to add Nicola’s dowry to his pile, as his servants Peter (Jared Hagan) and Harley (Amanda Collins) are quick to attest. But when Hugo arrives back in town, having been at sea with the smarmy Captain Lewis (Brian Lore Evans), Nicola and Marguerite’s plan is put into action—with more mishaps and hilarious misunderstandings than you can count. Max, for his part, is not going to take the danger lying down, and enlists the expensive aid of Dr. Tillman (Holly Erin McCarthy) who doubles as a psychoanalyst and attorney.

To go into the details of this performance would be absurd—the impact and delight are in the experience. Cape Rep has assembled what one might consider its all-star acting lineup here, and they are all consistently terrific. (I do want to call out the hysterically funny performance of Brian Lore Evans, whose role gives him a lot of latitude for great physical comedy.)

And then there’s the music. This is largely the American Songbook we’re hearing—but performed as it’s never been before. Favorites such as The Man I Love; Lover, Come Back to Me; Ah, Sweet Mystery of Life; and Hello, Ma Baby join the probably forgotten hilarity of I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles (and, yes, they do) along with Yes, We Have No Bananas, ably backed by a band consisting of Malcolm Granger, Ben Colgan, and Brad Conant and Chris Santos.

Ryan McGettigan again offers scenic design that’s flexible and playful, a village square that transforms cleverly into interiors and offers space for everything from sword-fighting to ghost-kissing (not telling: you have to go to the show to see the “picture” on the wall!). Choreographer Chelsey Jo Brown has created fabulously clever dances combined with obvious pratfalls that will have you laughing every time.

Regular Cape Rep patrons will recognize the stunning voices by nearly everyone in this lineup of triple-threat performers. Every actor is simply superb, and Cape Rep has done it again, offering an evening of delight and laughter… with a happy ending. It’s physical, it’s fast-moving, it’s wonderfully funny, and it’s the perfect antidote to recent events.

(So many of us are feeling deep gloom and pain after the recent US elections. I’ll be honest: I didn’t think I wanted to go see a comedy. But I was wrong: it is exactly what we need right now. Don’t let them take your joy. Go and have a belly-laugh or two. We can organize tomorrow. Tonight… go laugh!)

review: Jeannette de Beauvoir

images: Bob Tucker/Focalpoint Studio

Pickle Me Tink, a Lovesick Musical Comedy is at Cape Rep Theatre, 508.896.1888, www.caperep.org