Stage Review - Bake to Alaska (Key City Public Theatre)
Stage Review - Bake to Alaska
Presented By: Key City Public Theatre - Port Townsend, WA
Show Run: December 05 - December 29, 2024
Date Reviewed: Friday, December 06, 2024 (Opening Night)
Run Time: 90 Minutes (including a 15-minute intermission)
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s a panto? Honestly, I’m not exactly sure what Bake to Alaska is if I’m being honest. If I think about it, the new play from David A. Natale is sort of a little bit of everything. I do know what it feels like, though. It feels like the the playwright reached into my head, found the area where I store the memories of all of the things I used to watch when I was a kid growing up and the 70s, gathered them, mashed them up, and created an irreverent, wholly unique, and fun holiday play out of them. Bake to Alaska, which is having its world premiere on the Key City Public Theatre stage in Port Townsend in a production directed by Brendan Chambers through December 29, feels as if Sid and Marty Crofft were locked in a room with Jim Henson and Cheech and Chong, and asked to write an English pantomime. David Natale must have had a similar playlist to me when he was younger, because what he put together here, in his play that centers on a competition in which contestants must build a gingerbread house on a boat while traveling to Alaska, is the rare play that seems like it was written specifically for a Generation X audience. Though that’s not to say other audience members won’t get the humor, it’ll surely land with the older folks as well, and there are enough modern references to keep the kids engaged, but we of a certain age will appreciate the entire package.
If you read my review for Centerstage Theatre’s Holiday Panto (Beauty and the Beast), I went into a description of the major components of what makes up an English pantomime, or a panto for short. Bake to Alaska has the foundation of a panto, its main characters Hans and Gretta, are now grown up after being raised in a house made of gingerbread (sound familiar?) and have become YouTube stars, hosts of the show Extreme Foodie where they challenge themselves to eat the uneatable. Looking for their next big episode, they come across the opportunity to cover the aforementioned Bake to Alaska competition. Their job is to interview each of the contestants, and cover each team’s progress throughout the contest, but as the story goes on, and as each team is forced to deal with the challenges of sailing and baking, and facing their own internal struggles, the siblings must also come to grips with their own demons, in Hans’ case, his fear of gingerbread, caused by the trauma of his youth and the events surrounding the demise of their caretaker. Three teams have entered the competition, the first is a celebrity chef, Wolf, and his son Sam, whom he calls Cub. Wolf is a recently separated single dad who is trying to make things work with Sam, who is clearly still upset at his parents’ split. There’s more to it, though, Wolf and his ex-wife shared their restaurant, she was the baker, and he’s trying to make this work without her, while he battles his regret and his sadness, oh, and the promise to get Taylor Swift tickets for Sam if he goes on this trip with him. The second pair is is another YouTuber, Patty the Pirate, and her Pet Parrot puppet, her therapist’s solution to help with her self-esteem issues. The final group is a pair of puppets, think the muppet embodiment of Cheech and Chong, contestants that show why like any other “bake”, Bake to Alaska has many layers. They’ll be fine if they can just get out of their own way, but given their state of mind, it’s clear that getting out of anywhere is not on their priority list.
I love how uniquely produced this piece is, how it is designed and presented. The team of David, Brendan, and Margie McDonald (Set, Prop, and Puppet Designer) have put together a multimedia production that integrates the use of video and live action in a way that’s truly one of a kind. There are some scenes in the story that were pre-taped (video adaptation by Tomoki Sage), some scenes that switch between video, the display monitor is on stage right, to the left side of the stage from the audience’s perspective, and live action, where people appear to literally jump out of the screen, and some where there is a combination of both. This is all part of that Sid and Marty Crofft influence I mentioned. It seems nonsensical, but it’s used with purpose, and as a contributor to the comedy of the play. The puppet team is generally entirely on video, while the other two teams are live on stage, though interviews with them, and background features are shown on the video display, as if the audience is watching them on YouTube themselves. The transitions between live action and the videos are good and neither upstages the other, for example at no point does the video seem to do anything to replace what can be done on stage, it just complementary, and Bake to Alaska is a balanced multimedia production. The other two teams, the non-puppet teams, each have a boat that rolls on to the stage, each pushed by their crew and each with their own small kitchen on board to ostensibly bake and build their gingerbread houses. And as good as Margie’s set work is, her boats, and the island she built for Act 2 after the crews run into some trouble during their cruise, what is most impressive is what she’s done with the creation of the puppets in this production. From Patty’s parrot to the puppet contestants, Tosh and Stosh, these are professional grade puppets, each with their own personality, and that is before they even open their mouths. It’s very good work.
Beyond the set, props, and puppets, it’s also important to call out the other design elements that Brendan has put together to bring his vision of David’s work to life. Albert Mendez’ lighting does very well to provide mood, emotion, and focus for each seen during the show. I’ve always been impressed by the ability of lighting designers at Key City, in such a small venue, to use their craft to affect the storytelling there. Additionally, Bry Kifolo’s sound design is more than supportive of the other elements here, the rain and outdoor sounds adding a nice touch, and she continues her stellar work as the theatre’s stage manager, making sure that the actors, props, and other show components are prepared and in place. Finally, the costumes for this show that Corinne Elysse Adams has put together are superb in their simplicity, and functionality. Wolf’s chef jacket, Patty’s pirate outfit, including her red head scarf, the siblings’ more standard PNW wear, and even Sam’s Taylor Swift shirt, each are functional in that they inform the personality of the character, but they’re not extravagant. The exception, of course, has to do with one of those components of a panto, the idea of gender-crossing characters, this one played by the author himself, Mayor Winny, the host of the Bake to Alaska competition, dressed and portrayed hilariously and flamboyantly by David. But the best example of a confluence of all of the best of these design elements comes in Act 2, when Wolf has an unfortunate interaction with a mushroom. What follows is the song and dance of the panto in concert with the craziest Sid and Marty Krofft special you can think of, and a combination of Albert’s lighting, Bry’s sound, Corinne’s costuming, and the overall vision of Brandan and Margie, all from the mind of David Natale, in a hallucination of a scene to rival any other on stage.
There’s so much craziness in this show, it’s the kind of piece where as an audience member, you don’t want to ask yourself why certain things are happening, but rather it’s better just to let things wash over you, and by the time it ends you’ll realize not just that you’ve seen a uniquely devised play where each of the characters have dealt with their own issues and demons, but that you’ve also spent the last 90 minutes laughing at all of that silliness. It really does harken back to those off the wall shows like The Banana Splits from the 1970s, and oh, look closely at the screen when the puppet contestants are on and sitting in their boat, you’ll see a faint cloud-like mist float across the screen. And it takes a certain kind of actor to perform this kind of show, to understand the style of humor, the timing and the pace, and what the jokes are about, whether or not to deliver them with a straight face, or with a smirk. The group that Brendan has cast does get it, none more so than David, and of course, he’s the playwright, that makes sense. His Mayor Winny is fiercely eccentric and a bit over the top, and is extremely funny. In fact, everyone in this cast delivers the humor in their own way. Paul Kiernan is celebrity chef and restauranteur Wolf and his ability to deliver a one-liner that is hilarious, but do it with a straight face is top notch. His character carries that layer of regret and sadness with him, but Paul’s ability to reflect that, and still deliver a funny line shows his ability as an actor. His partner, son Sam was played by Eleanor Curtis on opening night (the character is alternated with Argus McEnerney and Caleb Sigmond) and Eleanor did a fine job, in a role that is largely the setup person for father Wolf, until Act 2 when Sam takes a more independent role in the plot, when everyone is put together and forced to cooperate despite being in a competition. Meanwhile, Kirsten Louise Webb plays Patty the Pirate, whose full name is Patty O’Furniture and who carries her pet around with her, again a layered character. Her humor comes from her self-deprecation, and while that underscores her struggle with self-esteem, Kirsten manages the complexity wonderfully. Finally, there are the siblings, Hans and Gretta, played by Tomoki Sage and Gabs Nathanson, who also voice puppets Tosh and Stosh, a multi-dimensional performance from each. The YouTubers have different individual perspectives, Hans wants to do an episode in a real restaurant, while Gretta is more interested in likes and follows, so when they agree to cover the Bake to Alaska competition, it seems like a good compromise. Gabs plays Gretta fairly straight here, every comedy needs one, she’s the serious one of the pair, while Tomoki is so funny especially in his paranoia. Their alter ego characters Tosh and Stosh are a different story. Sometimes, what they say is nonsensical, but the audience knows at least what they’re trying to say, and that’s the joke. Their minds are so not in the moment, so, um, baked, that it seems they’re floating through the competition. All and all, this is a group that gets it. I’m sure working with the playwright has something to do with it, but there’s no denying their ability on their own. Together, though, and there’s a lot of together time especially in Act 2, they’re wonderful, and among all of the crazy that this story is, it all just works.
Bake to Alaska is a lot of things. The new play from David A. Natale, which is having its world premiere at Key City Public Theatre in Port Townsend, and running on stage through December 29 in a production directed by Brendan Chambers, is a crazy panto that is a tribute to the silliness of 1970s television, bringing together three teams charged with baking and assembling a gingerbread house while sailing to Alaska. As with any bake, this comedy has many layers, and in order to make this holiday production work, it needs capable bakers, and with a more than capable cast and creative team under the direction of Brendan Chambers, this group has produced an irreverent and funny play and has surely earned itself the theatre equivalent of the holiday Paul Hollywood handshake.
The world premiere of Bake to Alaska runs on stage at Key City Public Theatre in Port Townsend through December 29. For more information, including ticket availability and sales, visit https://keycitypublictheatre.org/.
Photo credit: Mel Carter
