Theater Review

Tom Titus

It’s deja vu at Orange Coast College’s Drama Lab Theater, where melodrama

reigns for the second consecutive month.

Just weeks after staging the Western farce “Wild Oats,” OCC returns to

the genre for its annual holiday show, entitled “An Olde Fashioned

Christmas and Ice Cream Social,” featuring a comical “meller” entitled

“Christmas at the Longhorn Sage Saloon.”

This one, however, is home grown, written by OCC drama instructor David

Scaglione, who also serves as master of ceremonies for the event -- which

includes Christmas caroling, a visit from Santa Claus and a children’s

joke contest.

The latter segment is a guaranteed crowd pleaser, no matter how old or

lame some of the material may be. Youngsters barely old enough to climb

the steps to the stage share their favorite gags (example: Why didn’t the

skeleton cross the road? Because he didn’t have the guts).

Scaglione’s melodrama, directed by Rick Golson, follows the established

formula of elicited cheers, boos and hisses, with the actors adding their

own encouragement (“You didn’t boo the bomb?” the villain asks after

producing one). Naturally, it’s all played out front, an uncomplicated

plot served up with generous slices of ham.

Travis Woods, lean and serpentine, enacts the dastardly Simon Snodgrass

with a mischievous twinkle behind the evil demeanor. The saloon keeper

Sadie is a sprightly turn by Dawn Guarnera, who balances her performance

to avoid appearing too tawdry for the sandbox set in the audience.

Swiping the show at regular intervals is Rebecca Muhleman as Surrey Sue,

a farmer’s daughter type who exudes rustic charm. Her budding romance

with James McGinnis as the hero’s sidekick brims with comic energy.

The hero himself, Justin Thyme is a vacuous heir to a clock making

fortune, who in a running gag, can’t see the connection between his name

and his profession. Stephen Moore grins his way through the role nicely,

with Anna Jackson sighing plaintively as his lady love.

Additional comedy is provided by Frank Miyashiro as a Gabby Hayes-type

prospector whose brains have been scrambled by a blow to the head and who

stinks up the stage, literally. Evicted residents of the home for wayward

girls are enacted by Danae Hanson, Tracy Weisberg, Tawny Johnson and a

hulking Matt Gardner in drag.

It’s all good fun with pianist Adam Gubman joining in as an accompanist

whose heart is not always in it, hence periodic reprimands from emcee

Scaglione. Everyone gets ice cream or cookies, on the house, at

intermission.

WHAT: “An Olde Fashioned Christmas and Ice Cream Social”

WHERE: OCC Drama Lab Theater, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa

WHEN: Closing performances Friday and Saturday at 7 p.m., Sunday at 2

p.m.

HOW MUCH: $8-$9

PHONE: (714) 432-5880