{"id":108765,"date":"2025-03-24T21:59:25","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T04:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=108765"},"modified":"2025-03-24T22:02:47","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T05:02:47","slug":"ross-valley-players-musical-comedy-pet-lingerie-a-tech-spoof-with-some-laughs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/ross-valley-players-musical-comedy-pet-lingerie-a-tech-spoof-with-some-laughs\/","title":{"rendered":"Ross Valley Players musical comedy ‘Pet Lingerie’ a tech spoof with some laughs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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L-R, Ron Talbot and Laszlo Horner appear in Ross Valley Players’ new musical comedy “Pet Lingerie,” running through April 6 at the Barn Theatre in Ross. (Robin Jackson via Bay City News)<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Did you ever dream up a get-rich-quick app idea? Three wannabes do just that in \u201cPet Lingerie,\u201d an original musical comedy playing in Ross.<\/p>\n

Presented by the Ross Valley Players, the two-act show, which takes clever potshots at technology in general and crowdfunding in particular, can be summed up in a single word: Silly.<\/p>\n

Did writers Fred Raker and Bruce Tallerman (who met in Hollywood, writing for TV) expect that every one of their rapid-fire verbal gags would draw laughs? It turns out that the 105-minute play develops a rhythm something like this: Funny gag, laugh-out-loud gag, a bomb, funny gag, lol gag, a bomb, ad infinitum.<\/p>\n

However, audience laughter and sporadic applause nonetheless pummel the rafters of the Barn Theatre at the Marin Art and Garden Center, where the show runs through April 6.<\/p>\n

\u201cPet Lingerie\u201d takes place in the Airport Suites Hotel in Terre Haute, Indiana, where muffler peddler Ruben Mondello (Landers Markwick), ex-plumber Frank Pincus (Robin Schild) and yoga devotee Frances Ulrich (Vicki Victoria) try to learn from marketing maven Gary Panko (Laszlo Horner) how to kickstart their products.<\/p>\n

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L-R, Vicki Victoria and Robin Schild portray aspiring entrepreneurs in Ross Valley Players\u2019 premiere \u201cPet Lingerie\u201d at the Barn Theatre in Ross through April 6. (Robin Jackson via Bay City News)<\/strong><\/span><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

His three-day workshops may be too intense for some participants, but there are no refunds \u2014 \u201cmental breakdowns are no exceptions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their brainstorms are, to say the least, innovative: how to tell whether orgasms are fake; how to smother a toilet flush with recorded operatic arias; and how to get \u201csweet revenge\u201d via \u201cFU\u201d cookies and bird-flipping mitts.<\/p>\n

Panko\u2019s own apps are no less imaginative: They include a flak jacket that dispenses coffee through a tube and, of course, pet garments.<\/p>\n

Supporting characters add to the madcap mirth. Silvana Concino (Natalie Buck-Bauer) portrays a sexy but angry Italian flight attendant jettisoned by Panko, her lover; Susan Night (Annejelika \u201cAJ\u201d Ong Cortez) plays a tribute band singer craving Broadway lights. And Rabbi Moshe Ben-Hogan (Dan Schwager) is a playwright who\u2019s long been blocked.<\/p>\n

Also: There\u2019s Ron Talbot, who guides a pope puppet that doubles as a giggle-getter and center of a morality play within the play.<\/p>\n

A sample of the show\u2019s humor: \u201cWe had sex before there was sexting\u201d and \u201cI always thought we\u2019d tie the knot, but you turned out to be a bot.\u201d And, from old chestnuts: \u201cWhy\u2019d the Florida chicken cross the road? \u2026 to avoid becoming an early bird dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the music, no one\u2019s likely to leave the theater whistling the tunes composed by Tallerman. Still, Buck-Bauer as Silvana, Markwick as Ruben, and Schild as Frank all showcase impressive singing voices.<\/p>\n

Gary Stanford Jr., responsible for the show\u2019s cutesy low-tech choreography, also directs \u201cPet Lingerie,\u201d which has a delightfully droll twist at its tail. And Valera Coble\u2019s winning costumes contrast bright and colorful garb with an orthodox rabbi\u2019s all-black attire.<\/p>\n

\u201cPet Lingerie,\u201d a Ross Valley Players New Works production, was selected from more than 70 other previously unproduced plays by living Bay Area writers. While RVP New Works have smaller budgets, shorter runs and less elaborate sets than some of the company\u2019s other shows, they often take more creative chances.<\/p>\n

Here, for example, are offbeat but endearing concepts as a retired tradesman who still carries a plunger with him, an idea man who hides under the covers wearing a virtual-reality headset, and a non-traditional Partridge Family Tribute Band.<\/p>\n

And even if RVP New Works are imperfect, they deserve support. It\u2019s exciting and brave to stage original plays with topical themes.<\/p>\n

Ross Valley Players \u201cPet Lingerie\u201d runs through April 6 in the Barn Theatre at the Marin Art and Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd., Ross. Tickets are $20-$35 at <\/em><\/strong>rossvalleyplayers.com.<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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This article was first published on\u00a0<\/span>LocalNewsMatters.org<\/a>, a nonprofit site supported by Bay City News Foundation http:\/\/www.baycitynews.org\/contact\/<\/a>. \u00a0<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Sherwood \u201cWoody\u201d Weingarten, a longtime member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle and the author of four books, can be contacted by email at\u00a0voodee@sbcglobal.net<\/a> or on his websites, <\/b><\/em>https:\/\/woodyweingarten.com<\/a><\/b><\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0https:\/\/vitalitypress.com<\/a>.<\/b><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

L-R, Ron Talbot and Laszlo Horner appear in Ross Valley Players’ new musical comedy “Pet Lingerie,” running through April 6 at the Barn Theatre in Ross. (Robin Jackson via Bay…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":3.1,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-108765","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-woody-weingarten"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"