Arts and Entertainment

'Lounge Lizards' mixes food, music and comedy

Actor and producer Ron Holmstrom has long been frustrated by the lack of dinner theater in Anchorage.

Not that the city hasn't hosted some fairly successful stabs at food served with drama over the years. A theater troupe at the old Red Ram Restaurant flourished during the pipeline era. Synergy Dinner Theater lasted until 1988. More recently, the Tap Root Vaudevillians presented music reviews and murder mysteries at the Spenard venue. The Alaska Fine Arts Academy in Eagle River has held a few such events and, technically, one can call Mr. Whitekeys' shows, Mad Myrna productions and the Fur Rondy Melodrama dinner theater, since food can be ordered and eaten during the performance.

But Holmstrom was looking for something more formal. "I spent 10 years trying to pull it together," he said. It wasn't easy to find the right show and the right venue where performing space and good dining could meet.

It finally came together this month when "Lounge Lizards" by Terry Tafoya Earp opened at the Anchorage City Limits Lofts.

The four-person cast and simple lighting makes it affordable and the script is easy on the digestion. "I laughed out loud when I read it," Holmstrom said.

The play opens with a bar musician, Mickey, in the dregs of his career dragging his guitar into the latest dive "on my road to hell." Arthur Braendel makes a sympathetic dead-pan sad sack, but more importantly, he can really play that guitar. This becomes important as the show goes on.

He's greeted by Neal, a wannabe actor who's been bartending "temporarily" for the past four years, nerdily played by Devin Frey. They've barely met when two femme fatales in gam-revealing dresses belly up to the bar and sweep Neal off his innocent feet. Mickey holds back, however. He thinks he recognizes the older of the two, Valerie, seductively portrayed by Julia Cossman, as a groupie with whom he had a fling 25 years ago, just before his career took a permanent plunge to oblivion.

ADVERTISEMENT

His fears take on substance when Valerie and the other woman -- the charmingly sinister Stacy, played by Sarah Page -- whip out guns, force the two men to marry them, then take out large insurance policies on each. Valerie announces that she's come to kill the musician who dumped her and left her with a baby, who turns out to be the adult Stacy. If the men won't help her, then the new brides will do what's necessary to collect on the insurance.

But between failing eyesight, menopause and sips from drinks meant for other customers, Valerie isn't exactly sure who she's looking for. She patrols the tables giving each man the eye and, in the time-honored tradition of dinner theater, a patron or two is commandeered to take part in the show.

While Valerie is thus occupied, Stacy croons a couple of tunes accompanied by Mickey and discovers that she'd rather be a singer than an extortionist with the skills of an assassin. She confronts her mother while the men desperately try to figure a way out of their predicament.

No spoiler here, but if you bring a guest to the play, treat them to a Terminator, one of the specialty drinks at the Loft's music lounge. It will supply a private laugh at your table later on.

The drinks are dispensed at a real, live, no-host bar across the room from the stage bar.

As for dinner, patrons have the choice of halibut Olympia with rice pilaf, beef tenderloin with mashed potatoes or a vegetarian entrée. All meals come with a salad of romaine lettuce generously covered with feta and a large "cheddar biscuit," which is more like a scone. There's coffee and self-serve desserts available during a short intermission. The choices on Jan. 21 were a muffin or assorted cookies. I picked one with cranberries that was still warm and soft by the time I walked back to my table.

For dinner I had the tenderloin, which was covered in a flavorful gravy. The potatoes had chunks of garlic and black pepper in them, neither of which overwhelmed. The vegetable on the plate was green beans topped by tender bacon pieces and some kind of semisweet glaze that was particularly delicious.

The performers aptly handled their roles in what is basically a broad comedy, maybe one notch above a skit, although there is just a taste of catharsis. The singing, which included Cossman's polished soprano, and playing were good and a big part of the pleasure. Also, there's not a bad seat in the house with regard to lines of sight or hearing the dialogue.

The show will close in late February as certain cast members have other obligations, but Holmstrom said he has plans to bring in another show later this spring.

Lounge Lizards

When: 7 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays through Feb. 21

Where: Anchorage City Lofts at Fourth Avenue (enter through door on C Street)

Tickets: $57.50, meal included, at centertix.net

Mike Dunham

Mike Dunham has been a reporter and editor at the ADN since 1994, mainly writing about culture, arts and Alaska history. He worked in radio for 20 years before switching to print.

ADVERTISEMENT