Whiskey Business

Hasty Pudding Theatricals 141

Directed by Donald Brenner

Written by Ted Hennessy '88 and Ronald Corcillo '88-'89

At the Pudding through March 21

FOR Joel Goodson, prostitution was as risky a business as he could devise. This year's Hasty Pudding Theatricals show flouts the law with as much brevity and even more contraband booze. Whisky Business keeps the spirits flowing, especially when the crowds is as blasted as the cast is pretending to be.

For the 141st time, a crowd of foam-padded and balloon-busted Harvard men are attempting to prance and pun their way into your heart--if you can spare the $15-$17.50 ticket price. Men making fools out of themselves in this burlesque show carry on a Harvard tradition as outmoded as final clubs and Radcliffe college. But these vestiges of the past are still worth visiting at least once during your time here--to understand how far the rest of the school has evolved.

This year's show drags spectactors into the age of speakeasies, gangsters and Prohibition. The plot is simple. Booze is forbidden, boobs are not. Action turns on the antics of three main groups--bar-goers, cops and mobsters. The only beer joint in town not run by the mob--Cafe Ole--offers stripteasers to serve up the mixers. The plot centers around an attempt to save the bar, first from getting busted by the Federal Bureau of Prohibition and then from a "hostile takeover" by the mob.

Two barmaids--Amanda Pleasme (Michael Starr '90) and Sheila Lowitt (Donivan Barton '91)--start the show in the finest Roaring Twenties fare, in a dazzling tap dance that sends their fringes fluttering and foam chests bouncing. A Sam Spade archetype, detective Sam Antics (Jason Tomarkin '91), lets the audience in on Cafe Ole's reputation as "a joint where nobody just says no."

The beginning of the show is a clear indication of what is to come, as dazzling individual performances and choreography carry through an other-wise weak script. Most lines fall flat, devoid of the slapstick well-known to shows past.

The Whiskey Business script, written by Ted Hennessy '88 and Ron Corcillo '88-'89, was rejected last year in favor of the hit, Saint Misbehavin', and was rejuvenated for this year's production. It should have been scrapped twice.

STILL, the balloons bounce on. After an introduction to Cafe Ole, the action moves to a living room done in Italian kitsch, with marble busts of pizza chefs. Gangleader Don Ianmarie (Andrew Gardner '89) attempts to allay his Italian mama's concerns with some of the evening's best lines, "Mama mia, calzone, Lamborgini, genitalia, guapo..." He explains that her lust for fine cuisine was handed down from "Grandpapa Domino" and "Great Aunt Regina."

As the mob plans its attack, the authorities are planning a coup of their own. "This could be one of the biggest busts this decade," Agent Tess Toster-one (George Zlupko '89) declares. Two sidekick Marx brothers, police underlings for Tess Tosterone, offer little humor and merely scurry in and out of the way. However, the chief agent's wonky son. Tom Collins (Jon Blackstone '90), is hilarious.

In a spin to the usual boy-wants-to-be-ballerina plot, Tom Collins aspires to be a florist; Mom insists he become a cop. Hence ensues a barrage of typical Pudding groaners about tulips, mums and pansies. Agent Tess Tosterone leads a deft rendition of the song-and-dance, "Police Don't Eat the Daisies," with her brutal kicks and clumsy spins.

Scrawny Tom Collins is sent to infiltrate the Cafe Ole, where he soon bares his argyle cardigan breast for the woman of his dreams, barmaid Ginny Tonic (Ted Stimpson '89). His polyester pelvis gyrations and saddleshoe pirouettes team with his outstanding voice to make the "I Copped a Feeling" number shine. If not for Collins and the choreography, the lyrics of the number would put the audience to sleep.