5/10/2023 0 Comments Sillyfun valley start upThe sound effects are right and the minimalist set has just the right elements. At the start, it shows promise, when the opening ballad has the chorus suddenly pop out from behind the saloon bar, and continue singing unfazed when one of them is gunned down. The Whittier Community Theatre production can’t seem to make up its mind whether it is going to play the thing straight, and thus awkwardly, or live up to the wry humor of the script. It should be fast-paced and moderately ridiculous. Visual comedy can be emphasized, like constant references to Johnny being so tall, when the actor is not. Everything must be played large and melodramatically, resulting in almost constant chuckles and some significant outright laughter. Sound effects must be huge, choruses should appear from behind rocks, furniture, curtains, etc. Yes, it’s just that silly, and the staging should add more. But does he have a more violent past? Will he help Vienna? Into all of this rides a man of height and heart bearing a guitar instead of a gun. Emma, holding a secret passion for the outlaw The Dancing Kid, is out to destroy Vienna for her supposed romantic connection to the Kid. Miss Vienna, a bad girl gone good, owns a bar outside a small town - a town operated in tandem by Emma, the daughter of the founder of the town bank, and McIvers, the area’s largest landowner and rancher. Even the story sounds like all the B Westerns from the heyday of such things. “Johnny Guitar” by Nicholas van Hoogstraten, Joel Higgins and Martin Silvestri takes the standard Western formats and, if done right, plays them all with tongue firmly in cheek. Thus, when I saw that its new production of the spoof of classic Westerns, “Johnny Guitar,” leaves much to be desired, it does not come from the company’s amateur status, but from a misread on the part of those organizing the production. Most particularly, its “Into the Woods” was quite stunning, and shows like “Quilters” and “The Pajama Game” have garnered worthy praise. Over the past couple of years, one of the last of the strongly supported community playhouses, the all-volunteer Whittier Community Theatre, has produced several spunky productions of American musicals.
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