Music of the Blight
Mesa Little Theatre's "The Pinchpenny Phantom of the Opera"
* (out of *****)
Mark S.P. Turvin
(w) 965-1021  (h) 894-5443
I can be reached for comment via e-mail at: mspt@asu.edu

	It was not an auspicious way to celebrate their 60th 
anniversary.
	As always, allowances must be given for a small theatre group 
such as Mesa Little Theatre, whose tiny budgets and even tinier 
talent pool cannot stop the boundless energy and enthusiasm that 
the members have for the arts. While this attitude is commendable, 
the productions that come from this situation are occasionally 
difficult to sit through, and often give "amateur" a bad name. 
	All of that, though, doesn't begin to describe the production 
that MLT has re-mounted to celebrate its 60th season. 
	"The Pinchpenny Phantom of the Opera," directed by Neil 
Cohen, is a sparse sendup of Grand Opera in general, and the famed 
legend of the Ghost of the Paris Opera. If you are drawn to this 
play believing that you'll see amazing special effects, wonderful 
performances and music the likes of Andrew Lloyd Weber, then 
you're bound to be severely disappointed. If you go to this show 
hoping to see lousy painted flats, a cheesy falling chandelier, 
some good singing and some bad, some acceptable acting and some 
bad, and music you'd expect from a bad imitation of Lerner and 
Lowe, then you might only be somewhat disappointed. 
	The play, set in 1943, revolves around the intrigues onstage 
and off in the misnamed Premier Opera House of Sheboygan. In this 
decaying theatre, a young chorus girl, Pristine, has dreams of 
being the Prima Donna. The problem is that the owner and lead 
tenor, Gaston, wants big-name divas to bring in the bucks. She is 
visited by Airwick, the weird sewer dweller who is the Phantom of 
the Opera. He intends to further Pristine's career by knocking off 
each of the invited sopranos during the performances. The deaths 
work seamlessly into each of the enjoyable sendups of such great 
operas as "Solome," which becomes "Salami," "The Magic Flute," 
converted to "The Magic Fruit," and six others. Admittedly, the 
sendups of the operas are the best part of the production, as 
anyone who even has a hint of a clue of their plots will enjoy the 
ribbing the authors give them. Unfortunately, there is that silly 
plot linking each of the satirical scenes.
	Where to place blame first? Obviously, the biggest portion of 
the problems for this production come from the director, who has 
decided to weave the awful set and questionable performances into 
the show by making it seem intended. He has performers 
melodramatically accept the limitations of the wretched scene 
design and lighting, and gives them room to joke with the audience 
when another problem inevitably appears. This drops the show from 
kitsch to pathos. The opening night audience audibly groaned when 
another mammoth scene change neared, and chortled when actors 
missed entrances because of long costume changes or missed cues 
because of dropped lines. 
	Another fault of the director was the vocal miscasting of the 
women, who were in various parts which were either too low or too 
high for them. Despite a beautiful soprano voice, Mary Lynne 
Elrich's Pristine was forced to sing an entire song in a range too 
low for her, and was flat enough to make the audience's teeth 
grind. Whether her awful acting was intended or accidental, the 
silly presentation of the character was actually painful. In the 
alternating roles of divas, Jennifer Parker and Marcia Hanson were 
a bit better suited for the comedy, but were at times not as 
vocally solid as is required from their roles. Russ Hawkins' 
Gaston had a beautiful tenor voice, and an awful penchant to 
perform like a mustache-twirling villian. And just plain awful was 
Glenn Parker in his small role as Bubby, the chorus member, whose 
rotten enunciation was topped only by his terrible voice. 
	Bob King's set, lighting and sound design were beyond 
atrocious, as the audience was forced to endure several multi-
minute long scene changes, and were treated to the sound of the 
stage manager talking into her walkie-talkie in the middle of the 
performance. 
	Besides the eight humorous, albeit woefully short opera 
scenes, the show did have the benefit of a solid piano player, 
though she was listed pseudonymously in the program as K squared. 
Perhaps her foresight should have been considered by the rest of 
the company.
	MLT has been plagued with a reputation of being the purveyor 
of slap-dash entertainment. Rarely in the recent past has it been 
said that they have put up a quality show. This, though, is an 
extreme example of how not to run a community theatre company, and 
despite the few shining moments when the cast and material came 
together, could probably be used for future generations as an 
example of how not to mount a production.

Production Details:
"The Pinchpenny Phantom of the Opera" by Dave Reiser and Jack 
Sharkey
Mesa Little Theatre
234-8300
November 15th-December 1st, 1996

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