Fringe, Reviewed: Mount Airy Home Companion
Please note: This article is published as an archive copy from Philadelphia City Paper. My City Paper is not affiliated with Philadelphia City Paper. Philadelphia City Paper was an alternative weekly newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The last edition was published on October 8, 2015.
"Come as you are, it's better by far, in Mount Airy."
[ theater ]
Mount Airy Home Companion, by Saint Mad
Reviewed: Fri., Sept. 19, 8 p.m., closed Fri., Sept. 19.
Hello West Philly, from your brothers and sisters in Mount Airy, the hippy heartland on the edge of the beautiful Wissahickon Valley. Let’s come together for comedy and song in a radio-style show inspired by the legendary Prairie Home Companion. Fresh from two years of sold-out performances in Northwest Philly. Share the love!
WE THINK:
Writer and creator Jim Harris delivered a nod to the long-standing public radio program Prairie Home Companion with this Fringe show. A live (fictional) radio variety show just like Garrison Keillor’s, Harrison and his cast celebrated Mount Airy in comedy and song. The homespun feel of the show, from the hand-painted trees to the black music stands, transported the audience to the land of rice milk and Pennsylvania honey, setting up a situation ripe with comedy potential. Stealing the spotlight was Brian Mottershead, playing the part of Henri LaMerde, a Pennsauken native with a French accent. Mottershead, a recent Chestnut Hill College graduate, impressed with his lead vocals for the show’s opening number. “Come as you are, it’s better by far, in Mount Airy.”
The premise, as reported by radio correspondent Nutmeg Van Zelle (played by Elizabeth Caruso), was that Weaver’s Way employees were protesting growing commercialism and in response were opening up a new, ultra organic and hyper vegan co-op called Holy Wholer Foods. A full cast, including PBS “furniture guy” Ed Feldman, performed and sang, “I can box them, I can box them, I can box those wholesome goods,” backed by the house band, Saint Mad.
Although funny at moments, the show could benefit from some updating. A delightful parody of the broadway classic Oliver! song “Food, Glorious Food,” to “Food, organic food…” worked well, while a take on Joan Osborne’s “What if God Was One of Us” fell flat. Home Companion also missed an opportunity to capture the essence of West Philly and all it had reaped from the very artists standing on The Rotunda stage. West Philly is a community with similarities to Mount Airy: Mariposa Co-Op to Weaver’s Way, the Gold Standard Cafe to The High Point.
Refusing to end with anything other than rainbows and unicorns, literally, Home Companion gave the audience a second, happier finish as the cast joined hands in song, belting out “We are Mount Airy” to Sister Sledge’s “We are Family.” What a sweet finish for this happy group of bohemian love children.
