Two actors serve up one great dish of 'Tuna'

By BARBARA FREDRICKSEN, Arts and Entertainment
Published August 27, 2007

I really hate to get overexcited about going to see or do something, because things often don't pan out.

A trip to the beach ends when the sky fills with lightning. A long-planned journey to see a friend gets called off when the friend comes down with a bad case of highly contagious bronchitis. That overpriced dress purchased for a class reunion makes the rear look as broad as the Battleship Texas.

But sometimes, things are just as good, if not better, than anticipated. Despite hordes of sunburned tourists crowding around, Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon were more spectacular than I ever thought anything could be.

So I'm going to go ahead and let myself get overexcited about Greater Tuna, the two-man comedy coming to the Show Palace Dinner Theatre on Friday.

It's a series of good-hearted stories about the balmy, comical, absurd and daft people in a small Texas town, all of them played by two actors. It holds a special place in my heart because the people are slight exaggerations of people I grew up with in a small Texas town. Even better, four of the characters have the same names as four of my close relatives - Didi (we spell it Deedee), Stanley, Pearl and Hank. I crack up every time one of them comes on stage.

Years ago, I saw two of the three playwrights, Joe Sears and Jaston Williams, do the show (Ed Howard was the third). The script was terrific, of course, but the actors had played the parts for nearly 20 years, and they seemed to be phoning it in, as they say in showbiz.

This time, two of this area's favorite young actors are doing the comedy, Matthew McGee and Candler Budd.

They've played the Show Palace Dinner Theatre for ages, most recently as The Odd Couple, but will probably always be remembered as the cross-dressing reporter, Mary Sunshine (McGee), and henpecked Mr. Cellophane (Budd) in the blockbuster Chicago a couple of seasons ago.

Though both the men are terrific singers and fine actors, people around here know and seem to love them most for their comedy. Each seems totally at ease on stage, which puts the audience at ease. Like most born comedians, they're great ad-libbers who can keep an impromptu comedy riff going and going and going.

One of the funniest scenes I've ever seen happened during the musical Show Boat, when McGee and Budd were playing a couple of wild-eyed, gun-totin', scene-stealin' hillbillies in the audience at a Show Boat melodrama.

Their scene went sour from the get-go, with actors in the wrong places, people dropping or flubbing their lines and general confusion all around. As the scene fell apart, McGee suddenly stood up and said, "Let's start this thing over," grabbed Budd and left the stage. As the audience roared with laughter, they came back as if nothing had happened, started the scene over, and continued.

It was so hilarious that Show Palace co-owner Sal Sessa suggested they leave it in, McGee once told me.

Last year, the duo unexpectedly set an attendance record at the American Stage in St. Petersburg when they did the two-man show The Big Bang. Critic Marty Clear of the Times described it as "mind-numbingly moronic humor" and a "bad play disguised as a parody of a bad play."

Even so, it drew huge crowds and Clear's begrudging admiration, solely because of McGee and Budd.

"The utter witlessness of the material actually highlights the talents of Budd and McGee," he wrote. "That they can remain so likable, so energetic and even charismatic in the face of such intensely awful writing makes one long to see them take on something more worthy of their talent."

Good news, Marty.

Greater Tuna is terrific material, totally deserving of the McGee-Budd talent.

[Last modified August 27, 2007, 08:06:33]