RoomService08

The Dorset Players opened their 81st season with "Room Service", a zany, fall-down funny comedy set in the 1930's by John Murray and Allen Boretz, made famous by the Marx Brothers in the later movie version. Proudly sponsored by The Barrows House, The Dorset Inn, Briggs-Fowler Insurance and Matt Waite Excavation, Inc., performances were held at the Dorset Playhouse on Cheney Road in Dorset, Vermont at 7:30 pm on October 3-4 and October 9-12. In addition, there was a matinee on Sunday, October 5 at 2:00 pm.

"Room Service" was set entirely in the hotel room of Gordon Miller, a perpetually unsuccessful theatre producer, who, together with his partners in chicanery, an innocent playwright from Oswego, New York, and a troupe of twenty-two actors, had incurred mounting bills that threatened the opening of their planned production of "Godspeed", along with the sanity of Miller’s brother-in-law, Gribble, the hotel manager who allowed the throng through the door. Mix in the unexpected arrival of the supervising director of the hotel chain with other unapologetic silliness and there was a recipe for guaranteed laughs.

Director Dom Degnon marshaled a large and talented cast of familiar faces and newcomers to the Dorset stage. Peter D’arcy Langstaff, who dazzled Dorset audiences as the evil Antonio Salieri in last season’s production of "Amadeus," played the erstwhile producer of "Godspeed," Gordon Miller. He was joined onstage in the frenetic goings-on by Chris Restino, who portrayed the title character in "Amadeus," and Todd Houston, who was featured in that production as well as in "Gypsy." Danielle Wilson, who last season portrayed the adult Gypsy Rose Lee in "Gypsy," appeared as Chris, Gordon Miller’s "gal Friday" and fellow conspirator.

Playing the supervising director with steam coming out of his ears was Charlie Schubert, who has delighted local audiences for almost thirty years in Dorset Players’ productions such as "Lend Me A Tenor" and "The Dining Room." Kevin O’Toole, another stage veteran, played the beleaguered manager of the White Way Hotel. Ron Nagle, last seen as a stuffy bureaucrat in "Amadeus," here brought to life a lowly Russian waiter who aspired to a role onstage in "Godspeed."

Christy Vogel, who won raves for her turn as Mozart's spouse, Constanze, in "Amadeus", here played Simone Jenkins, the agent for a potential financial backer of "Godspeed". Dorset Playhouse favorite, Bob Davidson, added his personal touch in his turn as the stuffy hotel physician, Dr. Glass.

Making his debut on the Playhouse stage as the young playwright, Leo Davis, was Taylor Dear, a student at Burr and Burton Academy who has been featured in recent student productions of "Beauty and the Beast" and "Grease." In her first speaking role on the Dorset stage, Pamela Johnston, who portrayed Leo Davis’s love interest, Hilda Manney. Elizabeth Karet, who first swam onstage as a postal worker in last season's one-act, "Out to Sea", here portayed a dogged agent for a collection agency. Rounding out the cast were tyros Josh Burlingame and Paul Burrows, who portrayed a messenger and the owner of the hotel chain, Senator Blake.