There’s something fishy going on at The Great American Melodrama, although what’s happening seems relegated to a place far, far away—somewhere in the chilly northern wilds of Wisconsin—not in the comfy, warm, and welcoming theatre in Oceano.
It’s Guys on Ice, the Melodrama’s first of seven shows being presented during its 50th anniversary season—a gentle kick-off to what is expected to be a versatile and exciting celebration of five decades of great entertainment on the Central Coast.
All of this show’s elements come together to ensure that audiences will give a warm welcome to these two guys on ice.”
This show’s a bit different than what you might have come to expect from the Melodrama, however, as it revolves around just two characters who go ice fishing together: Lloyd and Marvin, played warmly and merrily by veteran thespians Mike Fiore and Billy Breed. The show is nonetheless full of the heart, music, comedy, and happy-go-lucky fun that is the trademark of a Melodrama production.
What’s missing is a villain to boo and hiss—no Black Bart or Creature from the Blacklake Lagoon—unless you count Ernie, the sole other character in the two-act show, whose only claim to villainy is that of being a first-class moocher. Played lustily by Casiena Raether, Ernie only sporadically interrupts Lloyd and Marvin’s ruminations, reenactments, and predictions about what’s happening in their lives as they gather round their fishing hole.
Fiore and Breed are predictably, and enjoyably, comfortable in their roles as men who know who they are, singing “What a day, what a life,” as they go about setting up for a day at the “wishing hole,” a shanty on the ice where they fish, share beers, and sing songs about (among other things) snowmobile suits and of course “the one that got away.”
Their ditties are mostly light and silly (“Fish is a miracle food”), with a somewhat limited worldview (reference to a diner with “the world’s largest soup ladle” comes to mind), and this seems just what director Dan Klarer and musical director Andy Hudson are inspired to remind us: it’s the simple things in life that count in the end.
The scenic design by Brandon PT Davis, the props by John Keating and Klarer, and the costume design, also credited to Klarer, perfectly suit this slice-of-life production. Indeed, all of this show’s elements come together to ensure that audiences will give a warm welcome to these two guys on ice.
The vaudeville revue that follows Guys on Ice has a few elements of its own to offer audiences: specifically fire, water, air, and earth.
Elemental, directed and choreographed by the ferociously talented John Keating, gives costume designer Barbara Abbott a chance to show off her skills. She has outfitted a fiery Casiena Raether in flashy Carmen Miranda-inspired ruffles, a sophisticated Sydni Ramirez in cool blue for water, a very flexible Mike Fiore in a loose-fitting fringed ensemble that lets him float and tumble his way around the stage as air, and Billy Breed in a—yes, down-to-earth—brown suit decorated with leaves.
Together, the quartet delights in the choreography, the puns, and the clever musical nods to their identities, in turn sending us off into the cold night having enjoyed the revelry and warmth of a job well done.