Everybody Loves Opal

The Coronado Playhouse is currently running John Patrick's Everybody Loves Opal under the direction of Keith A. Anderson. Opal Kronkie lives on the edge of a dump in a Midwestern city. She is a third-generation owner and a third-generation collector of miscellaneous refuse of others. Set designer Rosemary King utilizes Coronado Playhouse's large deep stage to the maximum. The set includes stairs and ramp to an upstairs and a hidden exit to the basement, as well as the house entrance. Set dressings, which required at least seven prop gatherers, is an eclectic collection that defies explanation. Almost every wall is covered with somebody's cast-off paintings. A multi-drawered steamer truck holds all sorts of wondrous minutia. A seven-foot bear stands erect upstage. Suzanne Sebenaler's decorations further add to this confusing cluster of cast offs.

Opal Kronkie (Jeanne Danis) is of indeterminate age, but definitely no spring chicken. She has collected and sold other people's discards all her life, following in the footsteps of her parents and their parents. She is a proud, trusting woman. One of her clients, a purveyor of fraudulent French perfume, has been raided by the law and decides to take up residency with Opal.

Danis is a delightful Opal, balancing an innocence with a streetwise demeanor. The gang includes Gloria Gulock (Jo Anne Scott), the sales arm of the nefarious operation, Bradford Winter (George Blum), the chemist, and Solomon Bozo (Richard O'Casey), the ring leader and hardened criminal, of sorts. Scott's Gloria looks like a hooker, talks like a hooker, but, gee, has a heart of gold. Blum's Bradford is truly evil, with an easy compulsion to kill. O'Casey's Solomon delights. He has all the charm of a con-man, slimy as a snail, with some redeeming facets. William Savage, as a doctor, exudes charm while maintaining the bite of a sharp wit. Finally, there is the long arm of the law, Officer Joe Jankie, played by Marcus Allen Correia. He has but two brief scenes.

Thom and David Waldman provide effective lighting, albeit almost all white, and a music track that nicely set the tone of the production. Producer and assistant director Mary Anderson is a triple threat, since she, as well as the cast, created the costumes.

Coronado Playhouse is not a very large building. It is set up cabaret-style and comes with an full-service bar. Director Anderson obviously requested his cast to project much more than is needed for the venue. At times the pacing drags. (As happens all too often, a cell phone went off in the audience and the offender couldn't find the bloody thing. Opal, bless her heart, covered well.)