Dirty Work at the Crossroads offers good, clean fun in Woodland

Posted @ May. 21 2011 09:20AM by Susan - arts-ent

Review by Bethany Pithan

Dirty Work at the Crossroads at Loves Street Playhouse in Woodland was nothing but good clean fun! Director Melinda Leuthold did an outstanding job of bringing to life an entertaining evening of an old fashioned story of good versus evil. I had the pleasure of seeing this delightful Melodrama last Friday night. As with all good melodramas, the plot is simple, all of the great “stock” characters are there and the actors stayed strong and consistent through the entire show.

This show takes place in the bygone era of the 1890s and tells the story of Nellie Lovelace, devoted to her mother and in love with Adam Oakhart, our hero. But the evil Munro Murgatroyd and his side kick, Ida Rhinegold, want to wreck everything for their own reprehensible purposes – and they’ll stop at nothing to achieve it!

I have to applaud the actors in this show as an ensemble. When they all came together on stage they played off each other extremely well. One strong team was Shelby Nelson. playing Nellie Lovelace. and Dave Roberts. playing Mookie Maguggins. Everyone was great but these two played so well together and their characters were rock solid that they kept me involved through the whole show. Then we had an outstanding balance to the “good” characters with our “evil” duo of Liz Bertsch. who played Ida Rhinegold. and Gary Corbin. playing Munro Murgatroyd. These two actors, when together, were outstanding. As much as I wanted to throw popcorn at the bad guys, they made being bad fun. I kept thinking of Ida Rhinegold as the evil version of Dolly Levi. Director Melinda Leuthold cast her good versus evil teams very well because they held strong through the whole show. Melinda also had an exceptional supporting cast all around. Renee Faddis, who played Widow Lovelace, was great old lady fun. She defiantly understood the comedy of melodrama. Our hero, Adam Oakhart, played by Logan Seay was sweet and endearing and a really good drunk -- In the play, of course!

In the true melodrama fashion the audience had popcorn to throw and watched entertaining musical numbers or “Olios” between acts. I felt the audience started to really get into the show once they had popcorn in hand. It is customary to boo and hiss the villains and then throw popcorn at them. This audience really started to get into it. I thought a few people sitting around me were going to go up on stage and tell the villain off. 

Don’t let a small theatre and simple sets fool you into thinking this is just a community theatre company. I was very impressed by the quality of every detail of this production. This show had beautiful and complete costumes, detailed and appropriate sets and actors that stayed in character and kept the show moving. The music could have been a little louder, but this is a professional and a "must see" show. I can’t wait to come back to see what this great company has in store for future productions.

This is a fun and entertaining show for all ages. You do not want to miss Dirty Work at the crossroads at Love Street Playhouse in Woodland.

IF YOU GO: May 13 - 22, 7:30 pm; Sunday 2 pm. $10. Order tickets online (link below).

http://www.lovestreetplayhouse.com/

A longtime theatre buff and drama professional, Bethany Pithan is artistic director for Longview Stageworks. She lives in Longview with her husband and two young boys.