{"id":3764,"date":"2012-10-21T21:09:26","date_gmt":"2012-10-22T04:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/?p=3764"},"modified":"2012-10-22T18:02:54","modified_gmt":"2012-10-23T01:02:54","slug":"i-love-lucy-spoof-overcomes-glitches-galore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forallevents.com\/reviews\/i-love-lucy-spoof-overcomes-glitches-galore\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I Love Lucy\u2019 spoof overcomes glitches galore"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Adrianne Goff (right) stars as Lucy Bicardi, and Leslie Klor is Ethel Schmertz, in "Trouble at the Tropicabana," a comic murder-mystery dinner show at the Marin Rod & Gun Club, San Rafael. Photo by Wendell H. Wilson.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Adrianne Goff could be a magician.<\/p>\n

On a recent Saturday night at the Marin Rod & Gun Club, she yanked several rabbits out of a hat \u2014 simultaneously \u2014 to successfully produce, direct and star in an interactive comic murder-mystery dinner show aptly titled \u201cTrouble at the Tropicabana.\u201d<\/p>\n

The slight-of-hand was needed because so many things were going south, as if Murphy\u2019s Law had been cloned and re-cloned by a humorless sitcom writer.<\/p>\n

Somehow, Goff managed to make the difficulties vanish \u2014 including a pre-show party that lingered too long, 30 aggressive wannabe theatergoers who showed up unexpectedly, waitresses who filled tall water glasses from a tiny pitcher that could replenish only two at a time at tables that sat eight, and a computer that conked out and had to be replaced before any essential recorded music could be played.<\/p>\n

Goff\u2019s Band-Aids, chewing gun and similar quick-fixes kept a packed house from shouting, \u201cAdrianne, you got some \u2018splainin\u2019 to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not incidentally, if that reference means nothing to you, you must have missed each and every episode of the classic \u201cI Love Lucy\u201d series \u2014 and each and every one of Ricky\u2019s mangled sentences.<\/p>\n

The audience obviously hadn\u2019t missed any. It cackled each time it was expected to during the campy, pun-laden, mistaken-identity, mega-melodramatic antics that took off where the historic and hysteric sitcom left off.<\/p>\n

And at least a third of it grinned gleefully while misstepping all around the huge room in a makeshift, voluntary conga line.<\/p>\n

None of the deer or elk heads on the walls criticized their dancing.<\/p>\n

Goff, who, believe it or don\u2019t, was also responsible for the costumes, was a comic standout as a whiny Lucy, donning a carrot-colored fright wig that intentionally didn\u2019t cover all of her own brunette locks.<\/p>\n

She and perfect sidekick Leslie Klor, who inhabited the body of Ethel, were funniest when they dressed in slapdash mustaches and black suits and delivered seamless clowning in the majestic tradition of Mutt and Jeff, Laurel and Hardy, Martin and Lewis.<\/p>\n

They also were strikingly and stridently amusing in a set piece in which they talked extra fast trying to out-jabber one another.<\/p>\n

Another dazzling performance came in the form of Vanessa Vazquez as Cookie, aka the duplicitous siren-vamp Celia B. DeMilo.<\/p>\n

The dinner by caterer Stacy Scott that complemented the show was spicy, tasty and, appropriately, Cuban-based.<\/p>\n

But not everything hit an \u201cA\u201d level.<\/p>\n

The five \u201cTropicana Girls\u201d would have garnered many more giggles had their simplistic choreography been outrageously klutzy instead of bland.<\/p>\n

The often-repetitive script would have evoked a lot more guffaws had its spoofiness not been so faithful to the original and, instead, been translated into more visual, fresh gags.<\/p>\n

And, unfortunately, the actors stayed mostly in the front of the audience rather than mingling with it, unlike the last Marin Murder Mysteries production at a smaller venue, San Rafael Joe\u2019s.<\/p>\n

The best move of the evening, however, was an ad lib from Wendell H. Wilson, who portrayed Ricky.<\/p>\n

When a two-year-old sitting on his dad\u2019s lap at a front table started to cry after a handgun was wielded, he told the boy, \u201cWe\u2019re just playing. We\u2019re all gonna have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

Surely, most folks did.<\/p>\n

\u201cTrouble at the Tropicabana,\u201d part of the Marin Murder Mysteries series, will play at the Marin Rod & Gun Club, 2675 E. Francisco Blvd., San Rafael, on various dates through New Year\u2019s Eve. Reservations required. Tickets: $40 to $65, including dinner, tax and tip; $30, show only. Information: www.marinmurdermysteries.com<\/a> or (415) 306-1202.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Adrianne Goff could be a magician. On a recent Saturday night at the Marin Rod & Gun Club, she yanked several rabbits out of a hat \u2014 simultaneously \u2014…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-3764","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":"