Theatre Review: “The Kitchen Witches” Stir Up A Pot Full Of Bad Blood, Family Secrets And Lots Of Laughs

[yasr_overall_rating]
 

Onstage in Bedford presents another full force comedy with “Kitchen Witches,” the story of two best friends and rival local TV chefs thrown together to do a duo cooking show. Lana K. Hoover as Dolly Biddle and Sherry Etzel as Isobel Lomax, hate each other. Well, their characters do. The actresses have actually appeared in several local productions together and even co-wrote and star in “Girls Gone Weird,” a show that pops up in the DFW theatre scene every now and then. To say that these two ladies work well together on stage, is an understatement of the highest degree. I had the pleasure of seeing Ms. Etzel in her first ever production. I went to see my husband in “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” some 17 years ago and she just happened to have that small part of Miss Mona. She was funny then and she is still funny now and paired with Ms. Hoover, they’re hilarious.

I don’t know if director, Mike Hathaway, designed this production for them or if he just lucked into this cast. Either way, he doesn’t put forth any heavy-handed or contrived situations and lets the show flow very naturally which makes this production two hours of premiere theatre action. The cast is small, tiny even. Besides Hoover and Etzel, Andrew Christian plays Stephen Biddle, Dolly’s son and the producer of the cooking program and Adam Livingston appears as Rob, the intern. Adam actually stage manages this production and does all the stage managing as “Rob”. Clever.

The show opens as we look at a small TV studio kitchen set. Dolly is doing her last show for the local access network and is very sad and hamming it up… a lot. What are they going to do? Fire her? About ten minutes into her “live” show, Isobel emerges and causes all sorts of havoc…on live TV. The audience’s response is massive so the owners of the local station decide they need to create a cooking show with these two ladies as co-hosts. Imagine “Two Fat Ladies” meets “Jerry Springer.” Stephen negotiates a truce between these ladies along the lines of Sadat/Begin and the new cooking show is greenlighted under the name of “Kitchen Witches.” The lengths each of the witches go to sabotage the other drives Stephen to the edge but somehow the show happens and the ratings are phenomenal.

Since Etzel and Hoover are so familiar with each other, there is never any doubt that their characters have the forty-year history that they are supposed to have. Their timing is perfect throughout the show and the way they play off each other and Stephen is a pleasure to watch. When things get a little more serious in the second act, they ratchet back the comedy at just the right times and just the right amounts to make these characters 100% believable.

Adam Livingston not only acted and stage managed the show, he also designed the lighting which was basic but, again, straight-up believable. The stage went from bright studio lighting to regular “work lights” with small touches that made me believe that yes, I was indeed sitting in a studio audience for a local TV show. Speaking of which, you are sitting in the audience of the “Kitchen Witches” cooking show while the play is going on. This means that there really is no forth wall and audience participation is not only wanted, but expected. Don’t worry, your part in the show will be rewarded with many laughs, giggles and other things cooked up by the witches.

Hathaway has “localized” this production by inserting names of actual local DFW people and businesses into key spots in the script. Some of that gives giggles to the “people in the know” but mostly it just adds to the down home real comedy that “Kitchen Witches” should be. This show could easily get campy and silly. If it did, it would just be another comedy that tries too hard to be funny. By keeping the characters very real and grounded, Hathaway has instead given us a show that is genuinely funny from the script AND the performances.

“Kitchen Witches” is a must-see for date night, theatre night or any night you need to laugh and have an honest good time.

“Kitchen Witches” runs Friday – Sunday through June 5th at the Trinity Playhouse in Bedford Boys Ranch. Tickets are available at www.onstageinbedford.com or by calling (817) 354-6444.