If you remember THE MRS. POTATOHEAD show from their salad
days, you’ll be rejoicing that Margaret Ann Brady and Dorothy Dwyer (and
friends) are back with a “New Old” set of comedy sketches BUT it only runs
through this weekend (March 19th). The ladies are up to their old
tricks, this time at Charlestown Working Theater, with their in your face
stand-up and sit-down brand of shenanigans. They’re joined for the musical bits
by Lucy Holstedt and she’s even game for a few of the riotous comedy sketches.
If you’re familiar
with the dare I say feminist calypso number, it’s in there, with three
times the bite. Dwyer predicts “you will be singing it later” and she’s not
kidding, she who lived the seamy side of Irish step dancing. Yes, tough kids
like Dwyer made mincemeat of their competition back in the day. (And she still
performs, just for us, in every sense of the phrase.)
Brady shows off her sharp character work, first as a
hardscrabble survivor in Afghanistan
and then as a wild, sobered up, garrulous alcoholic, and more. (She turns the
Max Burbank piece into a tour de force.) To paraphrase one of their pithy
retorts, what these women can do with a few bricks and cardboard a left arm is
truly remarkable. If you like your humor dark and a wee bit on the raw side,
this potato mash-up will more than satisfy.
