Heaton’s performance as rough and tumble Bo began with blustering overkill of its own as he at first brought so much arrogant energy to the characterization it bordered on the unrealistic. True, Inge’s character is distraught by Bo’s unwanted advances, but Cherie is a real and many-dimensional person and not a cartoon. She adopted an extremely squeaky voice that reminded me of Betty Boop and paced about the stage with pinched face, squinty rolling eyes and hands and arms flailing. Miss Campobella may have at first had some opening night jitters that put her into overdrive in an effort to project an excessively ditzy, hysterical persona for Cherie. It was when Bo and Cherie arrived on the scene that I became concerned there might be a problem. The two had shared a recent one-night stand and Bo has made up his mind that they will marry and take this bus to their new life on his ranch in Montana.
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Bo is pretty full of himself and has been essentially stalking our last passenger, lovely but not-to-bright nightclub singer Cherie (pretty Cristy Campobella). Then there are a couple of ranch hands, Bo (Brian Heaton) and his sidekick, Virgil (Bill Torgan). He has fallen on hard times with some help from whiskey and a few other bad habits. Lyman (Allen Doris), a verbose and rather intellectual college professor of literature whose wife left him three years ago. Arriving bus passengers include elderly Dr. Carl has eyes for Grace and that feeling is mutual, as the audience will learn.
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We meet the cheerful driver Carl, (warmly played by John McDonald). John McDonald as Carl & Marilyn Moore as GraceĪnd then the bus arrives amid this serious snowstorm that will delay its run.
Mark Wilson nicely plays the no-nonsense town sheriff, Will, who doesn’t like any bad behavior at the bus stop.
She is happily estranged from her husband, but as she relates, “Every now and then I gotta have a man just to keep me from getting grouchy.” Grace is delightfully assisted with the waitress duties by a shy, naïve and academically gifted high school girl named Elma (a sweetly joyful portrayal by Jacque Dowell). The cast of eight includes Marilyn Moore as Grace, the feisty manager of the coffee shop. (Lighting Designs, Scottie Smith, Sound Designs, Mike Ragan). Soft blue lighting illuminates the raging snowstorm outside the shop window. Everything takes place in the pleasantly rustic coffee shop of a midwestern bus stop along the route to Montana (Set designer, Don Hampton). The action of the play is aptly described by the title. That would present some issues, but not to worry. A crowded weekend schedule prohibited me from affording this play that usual courtesy, so I found myself attending the first performance.
Now in my role as critic I most often avoid opening nights with the goal of giving actors that opportunity to work out the kinks that may appear when first confronted with an audience. Then it was time to go to “work” at the Owen Theatre and view The Players Theatre Company’s production of William Inge’s BUS STOP. I had to be in a good mood last Friday night after a dear friend treated me to dinner at Perry’s Grill where the salmon was divine and the service from our waiter, Joe, was first-class.