The Sisters Fitz&Startz: Cook with Kids
book & lyrics by Rachel Lampert; music by Benjamin Costello, John Coyne, Larry Pressgrove
continuing Saturday & Sunday, December 14 & 15 at the Kitchen Theatre
For years the Kitchen Theatre Company offered Family Fare, original musical concoctions that Rachel Lampert cooked up as KTC’s Artistic Director, often in collaboration with Associate Producer Lesley Greene. This year Family Fare returns (courtesy of Lampert’s Fitz&Starts Production and Priscilla Hummel’s Walking on Water Productions.)
Out of Family Fare were born some recurring characters, none sillier nor more endearing than the Sisters Ashtabula and Phlemena Fitz&Startz, who run a School for Music and Dance. Originated in days of yore by Joey Steinhagen of Running to Places and Lampert, they have reappeared in the hands of many beloved Ithaca actors, but only now has Steinhagen returned to the role of Ashtabula, diva extraordinaire.
Lightning in a bottle. Neatly partnered by another veteran Lampert actor, Stephen Nunley, Steinhagen flits about the stage in frenzies of nostalgia and ‘acting’ that resonate against Nunley’s calmer, and more maternal Phlemena. It’s tag team comedy resonant of Laurel and Hardy or Lewis and Martin. Their big number is a flamboyant Carmen Miranda-esque cover of “Legumes” (featured in the weekend’s ‘adult’ offering, Comfort Food.)
Three pre-teens (played by Gabriella Galante, Amanda Hopko and Sana Sarr) are rehearsing their semester recital when disaster strikes—the long-time caterer for the recital has left town. Time to find some recipes and throw them together.
It’s a wacky, fast-moving and very interactive hour aimed at very young kids and their families, with oodles of repetition that the audience leapt into on opening weekend.
Lampert has pulled together a mish-mash from her capacious trunk—long time Kitchen audiences will recognize the gorgeous song December Suite (music by Benjamin Costello; re-arranged for a tight three-part harmony by music director Travis Knapp to show off the gorgeous voices of Galante, Hopko and Sarr), and Snowphobia set to Vivaldi’s Winter from Four Seasons. New songs feature music of John Coyne: Let’s Get Cooking, Utensils, and Ingredients which evolve into clever marches around the kitchen counters (set and lights by Tyler M. Perry) choreographed by Hummel.
Director Sarah Plotkin keeps the tone bright, the pace lively, and the story crystal clear.
It’s the perfect winter break. Just as the Sisters planned.
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