The Illumination of the Grumpy Guitarist: Plenty of Potential

I tried to surrender to The Illumination of the Grumpy Guitarist, but the curmudgeon George Chesterfield was too annoying and silly. The grotesque mask he wore covered his lips and made it difficult to hear his lame jokes such as when he mumbled that his guitar had ‘shrunk in the wash and became a ukulele. Never leave your guitar in your pocket.’

Luckily for the audience made up of friends of the cast, 11 singers and dancers interrupted Grumpy. There was plenty of tap, tap, tapping. Fred, a seven year-old audience member in a straw-hat in the second row rated the performance. “It was terrific. But I’m a dancer.” What kind of dance I asked. “Blues,” he replied confidently.

The sexy strong woman with a beard gives you a gist for the burlesque talent that strutted across the stage. At one point, George complained about “the stupid shit,” and I was with him on that. I did enjoy the ‘gift of counselling’ because it said something. The woman denuding a sunflower was truly surreal and the dancing janitors were sexy.  Gloria’s happy hour was truly sad. " ‘One in a million’ means there are 6,852 one in a million in the world. Do the math."

To be fair, the dozen folks in the theatre did seem to enjoy their friends’ unique talents with unusual instruments and toe tapping music. To me the performance had the feel of a talent night in an arts high school with plenty of potential that needs an extraordinary director to make something out of it. If you know these local emerging actors come see them for yourself. If you have aspiring young dancers in your life, maybe bring them to the half price show.