Yah-hoo for WHOOP-UP!

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 7/13/07 at 10:37am

Had a total blast at Opening Doors'last performance of WHOOP-UP! at the Duplex last night.

The story is hugely silly (Ken Mandlebaum said something to the efect that its the only musical about a car) and features tasteless lines about Native Americans that had the audience gasping, but it's brash, snarky and completely engaging with a sassy score that is deliciously cheesy fun.

The cast was uniformly terrific, led by bright-eyed Alison Renee Foster tearing the roof off as Glenda (imagine a pretty cross between the original Glenda, Susan Johnson and Martha Raye), Brian Walker as the sexy lummox Joe, Rachel Louise Thomas as Joe's squeaky sister Mary, Brian Walker as Joe, Matt David as Mary's earnest suitor Joe Potter (who was breathless after the tounge-twisting 'The Best Of What's This Country's Got') and Dan Joiner as the blustering, glowering Kellenbach.

The choreography by Dawn Trautman was amazingly varied and effective on the table-top sized Duplex stage.

I would love to see this mounted again, maybe as a Fringe festival revival. If XANADU could work, why not WHOOP-UP?

Updated On: 7/13/07 at 10:37 AM