Once upon a time there was a magician named Alec the Amazing and All-Powerful. And, he had an assistant called Mystical Marla. As magicians are inclined to do, Alec had a white rabbit he pulled from a hat in each show.
Until one day the rabbit, smitten by a sweet lady in the audience, became surly and took over, decreeing “no more magic shows!”
Soon, a pair of accidental characters became part of the action. Readers probably need to see this production to comprehend it, but we’ll try.
“Jugged Rabbit Stew” is a new musical written by the always-inventive crew at Buntport Theater with music and lyrics by Adam Stone, who was also composer for last season’s “Seal. Stamp. Send. Bang.”
Lights go up on a living room of sorts, with newspapers covering the floor and draped objects hanging from the ceiling. On one side is an overstuffed chair and several TV sets. A tall creature with rabbit ears and mask and white furry paws, wearing rumpled pajamas and robe staggers in and plops down in the chair, turning on a show about wild rabbits (home movies).
It’s Snowball (Erik Edborg), the magician’s rabbit with a fondness for the bottle, who, we learn, has stolen all the objects hanging from the ceiling and has a reason to justify each one. “I collect, not steal” he explains to Mystical Marla (the comical Hannah Duggan), who walks with a peculiar gait because Snowball once sawed her in half and gave her the “hairy man-legs” of a local mechanic instead, complete with smelly feet.
Enter next the red-clad magician (Evan Weissman) looking for his coin he uses for a sleight of hand trick. His right arm is missing, we learn, because the rabbit made him disappear and sent the right arm out to get Ding Dongs, while he made the rest of Alec return to the scene. That would, logically of course, lead to a mysterious black figure with one red arm and a western drawl entering the room – Arm (Brian Colonna).
Among the objects hanging from the ceiling is a rocking chair, which turns out to hold a sweet Woman (Erin Rollman) whom Snowball stole after making eye contact with her during a show – it was at this point that Snowball refused to perform any more.
Woman and Arm make a connection.
Throughout, songs burst forth, telling more stories.
Snowball maintains he’s a tragic hero and hoped to have intellectual conversations about Kepler and Galileo with the Woman, although she was at the show with another rabbit. Hanging over it all is Snowball’s fear that people will want to eat him – in jugged rabbit stew, a fate that befell his parents… Assorted story lines unroll as things get sorted out.
Buntport’s ingenious staging has microphones appearing from on high and a suspended Victrola that functions. Delightful, clever – what more can you ask? Perhaps a bit more polish on the musical delivery.
-Sonya Ellingboe, May 27, 2010, Littleton Independent