The Great American Trailer Park Musical to Play Dodger Stages in August
The Great American Trailer Park Musical focuses on what happens when a hot young stripper with an agenda moves into a North Florida trailer park called Armadillo Acres and compromises the married man next door. Spray cheese, roadkill, magic marker huffing and plenty of nostalgia are all components the show. The musical features music and lyrics by David Nehls and a book by Betsy Kelso.
The Great American Trailer Park Musical played as part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival last year. The cast there included Robin Baxter, Carter Calvert, Jenn Colella, Amanda Ryan Paige, Geoffrey Scheer and Dan Sharkey. In his Broadway.com Review of the mounting, Kevin Manganaro wrote: “If Trailer Park takes pot shots at preconceived notions of low-income Southern living, it does so lovingly. Director/librettist Betsy Kelso clearly has great affection for these characters. We're never mocking them; we're laughing along as they have a yee-haw good time… The songs, by David Nehls, allow each character time to earn laughs… This is a crowd-pleasing comic hit, and having this many belly laughs in two hours is as soothing as a folding chair and a cold beer on a hot day.”
Dodger Stages' Stage I is one of the complexes' two 499-seat theatres and it is the only venue within the complex never to have housed a show. Bare was announced for an October 2004 start at the theater theater, but was indefinitely delayed when financial backing for the project feel through in September. Although a Dodger statement at the time of the delay said the theater was being left empty for a future start date, Bare never began performances at Dodger Stages.