Uptown Players, Dallas' premier gay-themed theater company, presents writer Jamie Morris' re-imagined parody of the popular 1986-93 TV sitcom, “Designing Women.” The original starred the late Dixie Carter as haughty, sensible, Julia Sugarbaker who, with her ex-beauty-queen sister, Suzanne (Delta Burke), operated an interior design firm, Sugarbakers, from their living room in Atlanta. Rounding out that cast as their employees were ditzy Mary Jo (Annie Potts), spacy Southern Belle, Charlene (Jean Smart), and flaky neighbor Bernice the late (Alice Ghostley) with invaluable help from their black ex-con delivery man Anthony (Meshach Taylor).
For Re-Designing Women, Morris has updated the material, adding numerous references to current political and pop culture icons. The show opens with Charlene (Michael B. Moore) in hysterics over the fact she thinks she is shrinking. Enter Mary Jo (Chad Peterson) extremely upset about having her eyelashes singed and shopping for a pair of fake ones plus a visit to the vet who wants to charge an exorbitant fee to neuter her dog. Julia (Jamie Morris) tops them both for having the worst mishap, an auto accident that all but totaled her car. (I won't give away the hilarious situation of how that happened.)
To plump up Sugarbakers' coffers, Suzanne (Ashton McKay Shawver) has tricked them all into signing a contract drawn up by a producer she met, Andy Cohen (Kevin Moore), for a TV reality show. Turns out Andy was the driver of the car with whom Julia collided. Into this zany mix add delivery man Anthony (Darius Anthony Robinson) and neighbor Bernice (Mikey Abrams). Hijinks ensue at every turn as each character elevates “her” angst to the limit.
Re-Designing Women is best described as an “SNL”-type sketch revue liberally peppered with pre-pubescent potty humor. Director Andi Allen's staging is fluid, but somewhere along the way, she lost control of her lead actors, allowing them to shout, often unintelligibly, run their lines together, slur their speech and swallow the ends of their words.
In the reality show-within-the-show, as well as in the real show, the break-out star is Mikey Abrams who channels Alice Ghostley to near perfection, including her vocal timbre and cadence, with pinpoint accuracy. Close on his heels is Robinson who’s a hoot as Anthony and milks each line for maximum laugh value. He is also a dead ringer for Meshach Taylor. A real guffaw getter is Shawver as Suzanne in a parody of Delta Burke's well-publicized weight problems. <
Special kudos to Coy Covington for his fantastic wigs and Suzi Cranford for her fabulous costumes. They add an extra dimension to the show.
