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Fat Shirley's: A Trailer Park Opera, is a hilarious musical comedy and the funniest play to come down the pike in a long time. Set in rural anywhere, Fat Shirley's paints a picture (probably on black velvet) of an unlikely utopia: a trailer-park where the tenants love each other. They love their landlady (Fat Shirley). And they love their cousins... (conjugally). This is a play with an attitude! The humor is decidedly rural and has a Southern Appalachian flavor. Actually, it translates pretty well and has been produced in other venues outside the South. The play is rollicking good fun. The song titles alone are calculated to make one snicker ("She's My Cousin, She's My Wife"; "Hickies"). The plot centers around the housebound Fat Shirley and her friends, the tenants of her trailer park. Her friends throw a birthday party and Fat Shirley receives some rather ~ um, interesting ~ gifts; but they are well meant. Alas, Fat Shirley falls face-down into her birthday cake and croaks. Not ones to miss an opportunity for a party, her tenants throw a wake (Southern barbecue style). Her stricken loved ones wonder, "Will there be trailer parks in Gloryland?" Honest tears and good barbecue aside, proper etiquette is not forgotten, as one trailer-park mother takes the opportunity to instruct her crude son, "If You've Got a Runny Nose (Don't Wipe it on Your Clothes)." Fat Shirley's Alabama brother, John Earl, turns up at the funeral and claims Fat Shirley's property. John Earl has mercenary dreams of starting an ostrich farm ~ he promptly serves an eviction notice. The tenants are frantic, as they face the prospect of homelessness. As act two opens, the audience is privileged to peek into the tragi-comical life of Broyhill Jackson, whose wife, Marva, has kicked him out. He mournfully sings of his "Eating at the Waffle House, staying at the weekly rate, doggone lonesome blues." Broyhill's brothers ~ Futon and Camaro ~ have troubles of their own. For one thing, Futon has developed a thing for ladies that wear hair nets. Camaro is looking at the prospect of marriage (probably having been inspired by the happiness of Ray and Connie Ray Conn (of She's my cousin, she's my wife fame). Camaro's main squeeze, Angel, has fallen for him. And she has proof of his love for her: he gives her "Hickies." Broyhill's wife, Marva, meanwhile, is tempted by traitorous thoughts of fat bank accounts and ostrich farms. Marva proceeds to woo the slick John Earl. But she does come to her senses and returns to her own true love, Broyhill. The tenants talk mutiny, and it appears that John Earl will get a trailer-trash tail-whuppin'. Some trailer-park residents typically enjoy a reputation for shiftlessness and poor decision making. "Contrarywise!" (Fat-Shirley-speak): Fat Shirley's friends are not totally without brains or education. Futon has used his couch-potato time wisely, becoming schooled in the law and forensics of Matlock. Futon suggests they look for a will. They do find a will but there are complications. It briefly looks as if the government will inherit. But all goes well. The tenants inherit after all, and life is hunky-dory in trailer-park land. |
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More About Fat Shirley's and it's creators: Fat Shirley's is the brainchild of playwrights T.J. Brown and D.B. Crawford. (T.J. Brown doubles, locally, as Connie Ray Conn's doting husband, Ray, in Dalton's local Dalton Little Theatre production). D.B. Crawford is known for his "Pachelbel" parody. The playwrights enjoy a growing reputation in North Georgia. A bit of their fame has even leeched out into Great Britain: Fat Shirley's was performed at a small playhouse in the U.K. [Fragile Theater Partnership at Alma Tavern, in Clifton, Bristol, England]. [Official website, hosted by Yahoo! Geocities]: Fat Shirley's: A Trailer Park Opera This page is copyright 2008 by Southern MuseTM |