'Five Course Love' Delivers at Little Lake Theatre

With a heaping portion of high camp, playwright Gregg Coffin's “Five Course Love” utilizes the talents of three Little Lake Theatre actors (Kate Neubert-Lechner, Steve Bruno and Jim Auld) to play a series of lovelorn characters using five different restaurants as a backdrop for their romantic entanglements.

In the first scene, nerd-burger Matt (Bruno) is driving toward his destiny, late for an important date. At a small table at Dean’s Old-Fashioned All-American Down Home Bar-B-Que Texas Eats, he meets a down-home far-from-old-fashioned country girl, Barbie (an amazing Neubert-Lechner). However, the course of true love never did run smooth. Don’t worry there are four courses left!

In the next venue, a mobster, Gino (Auld) and his two-timing moll (Neuber-Lechner again) rendezvous at the Trattoria Pericolo, but, once again, there is trouble in the kitchen (a line you become very familiar with as the play progresses).

The play continues all the way to the Star-Lite Diner where chicks and greasers pine for their mystery dates while belting out 50s music.

In “Five Course Love,” everyone sings for their supper. There is little dialogue, but the songs are original and funny. Though, some of the jokes are downright groaners.

Playwrights and screenwriters shun cliché, seeking to avoid the dreaded restaurant scene. Such scenes are usually rife with bad dialogue and exposition.

Composer and author Coffin takes the old chestnut and roasts it. Each of the three actors perform five different roles in five different restaurants—a barbeque pit, a trattoria, a cabaret, a cantina and a 50s diner, with music to fit each theme.

The joint is jumping at the Star-Lite Diner. The song “True Love at the Star-Lite Tonight” is stylistically reminiscent of “Grease” or “Little Shop of Horrors,” and could easily be plunked down into either Broadway production. Coffin nails the five disparate genres that flow seamlessly from country to cabaret, opera to oldies.

As far as set design goes, pull off one tablecloth and reveal another underneath and the Bar-B-Que transforms into a trattoria, replete with the standard red and white checkered tablecloths and prerequisite wine bottles dripping with wax. The tables could have been placed a bit farther apart, giving the actors a little more room to strut their stuff in the hilarious dance sequences.

“Five Course Love” is a show for actors who are also quick change artists. Each actor dons five dissimilar costumes each time they appear on stage (dissimilar is an understatement!). Costumes get really wild at the Der Schlupfwinkel Speiseplatz (dare you to say it five times fast).

Barbie, Sofia, Gretchen, Rosalinda and Kitty are five distinct characters precisely performed by Neubert-Lechner.

The role requires a Carol Burnett or Lucille Ball with a wider vocal range, and Neubert-Lechner fits the bill. She has real sex appeal, especially while singing “Jump the Gun.” But, just like Burnett and Ball, she is not afraid to look goofy to get a laugh. As Rosalinda, she is Lucy at her best, garnering copious laughs. Watching her parade around on her "horse" is an epic moment of hilarity.

Auld started off weak, but finished amazingly strong. Let’s blame his first song, “Dean’s Old-Fashioned All-American Down-Home Bar-B-Que Texas Eats” on opening night jitters. He excelled later in the show.

The show speeds along at a brisk pace. The play probably didn’t need an intermission, but Little Lake fills the interlude with a dessert course (not one of the original five courses).

Art DeConciliis directs a well-executed production, with a musical direction assist from Melissa Yanchak. The band, Yanchak, James Rushin and Robert Fitchett, also do a remarkable job with the mashed genres of music. 

If you’re looking for a fun evening away from the kids (the show has some adult themes, so leave them with the sitter), “Five Course Love” delivers.

"Five Course Love" runs for two more weekends—Sept. 15-17, 22-24.