Pump Boys and Dinettes

Reviewed by Holly Bartges

I have to be honest.

Gary Floyd as L.M., Louis Tucci as Jackson, and Ben Thompson as Jim star in the Country Dinner Playhouse Production of Pump Boys and Dinettes.

Pump Boys and Dinettes is not one of my favorite musicals. It has belonged to a category labeled “go-nowhere-do-nothing” musicals that can at best be entertaining, and sometimes not. At least, that has been my previous experience.

I held my breath, working hard to maintain a neutral expectation as I try to do with every production to give everyone a fighting chance. And, decided I needed to trust producer Paul Dwyer that his creative instinct would fly.

The result: Pump Boys and Dinettes at the Country Dinner Playhouse flies with exciting entertainment. Dwyer’s creative essence kicked in taking Pump Boys somewhere doing something. Bringing in Joel Ferrell to direct and choreograph a cast of highly-talented artists with personalities that go through the roof and voices that blend, punctuate, and compliment each other, Pump Boys becomes vibrantly alive.

With Rob Westan’s scenic design that snuggles right at home within the givens of Country Dinner Playhouse, the atmosphere for Pump Boys surrounds the entire theatre.

A large banner on one side of the theatre spells out Double Cupp Diner while the opposite wall sports an equal banner shouting LM & Jim’s Garage. Logos are hung in appropriate places advertising Texaco, Sinclair Dino, Burgers, and Breakfast Specials. The back end of an old car juts out where the combo generally sits.

The set generously carries one to Highway 57, somewhere between Frog Level and Smyma. The exact names may not be known at the very beginning, but the atmosphere definitely gives the impression the place is going to be down home country.

The Pump Boys hang out at the Double Cupp Diner with their station right across the street. Sisters own the Double Cupp Diner: Prudie Cupp (Christine Rowan, and Rhetta Cupp (Sarah Rex).

The Pump Boys include, Jackson (Louis Tucci) on lead guitar; LM (Gary Floyd) on the piano; Eddie (Ted Kuenz) Bass; Jim (Ben Thompson) rhythm guitar and P.K. (Tag Worley) on drums.

These aren’t just singers singing their songs. These are actor/singer/musicians comfortable in their roles interacting not only with each other but also with the audience. They tell stories on and about each other, pulling each other’s legs, telling jokes, teasing, remembering, and working their way through tiffs of misunderstandings floating easily from dialogue to songs that add distinctively to the flavor and tone of their just hanging out. A natural energy connects them all. When they roll into the opening number “Highway 57” covering the territory of where they are, the first element noticed is the blending of all of their voices. They sing as though they have been singing together a long time. The second element noticed is that every one of them is having the time of their lives.

So many times with musicals of this nature, when one or more are singing, everyone else comes to a standstill while the light shines on the singers. Ferrell’s direction speaks directly to this issue. There is no standstill in this production. There is constant action reaction and perpetual movement flowing smoothly, casually, and naturally.

On the piano hangs fun signs: “No checks sept if we know ya,” and “We charge by the hour or buy the Beer.”

A phone rings close to the audience. Jim answers. Someone wants to know when the Winnebago will be ready. Consulting with the others, the answer comes with a laugh from each “Maybe next week, Maybe not.” Engaging a member of the audience to hold the phone high over her head, the Pump Boys sing “Taking It Slow” as Jim continues to instruct the audience member, “a little higher, a little more forward, a little lower, no higher.”

Prudie and Rhetta launch into S“erve Yourself” when the guys want to be waited on.

With a little bit of Rock N Roll, and Country & Blues, this musical revue celebrates love, life, disappointments, memories, hopes, and dreams emerging from a small southern town. The cast has so ingratiated themselves into the setting, you almost feel as though you are peering through a magic window that defying space and time.

No one planned to write Pump Boys and Dinettes. It happened serendipitously. During the winter of 1980, Mark Hardwick and Jim Wann played five nights a week at the Cattleman Restaurant in New York. With Hardwick on the piano and Wann on the guitar, they decided they weren’t about to play the same show every night. For fun, Hardwick began wearing funny outfits. For some reason one his favorites was a gas station uniform. Not to be left out, Wann joined in the fun. When anyone asked them what this was all about, they simply said they were gas station attendants. They were Pump Boys during the day and musicians at night. It didn’t take long before Pump Boys became their name.

While this was in development, Cass Morgan, Wann’s wife, was in the process of putting together a cabaret act with Debra Monk. Calling themselves the Cupp sisters as waitresses in a diner, they called themselves The Dinettes. Every once in a while for the sheer fun, the Pump Boys invited the Dinettes to join them. Success hung over their heads, and they began writing material for their place on Highway 57 establishing relationships for the characters, writing songs to feed into the scenario, and Pump Boys and Dinettes birthed their way through the musical canal and became a favorite all over the world. In 1982 the musical moved to Broadway and that year was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Musical.

And now Country Dinner Playhouse brings Pump Boys and Dinettes as alive as when it was first born with singers who sing, dancers, who dance, actors who know how to cloak themselves into costumes and characters, and musicians who wear their instruments as extensions to their very being.

The Pump Boys hush the audience acappella with the “Fisherman’s Prayer” and elicits smiggles (smiles and giggles) with the song “Catfish.”

This comes about because Jim stood up Rhetta on a date. Of course, she’s miffed. He insists the reason was logical. He got his fishing license, and that, of course, takes all precedence. Not according to the female view point, and she lets him have it with “Be Good Or Be Gone.” Later he promises to clean the beer cans out of his car, if Rhetta will just go out with him.

Jim remembers growing up in his grand motherŐs house with “Mamaw,” a very sweet and gentle song.

At the beginning of Act II, the Pump Boys announce there really is going to be a raffle and the winner will get a John Elway new car — freshener. The winner even gets to choose the scent. Eddie officiates the raffle because he has had some “legal” experience somewhere along the line. An audience member was chosen and so honored.

With harmony, playfulness, and honesty Prudie and Rhetta sing “Sisters” with poignant tenderness “We grew up together but never were friends. We grew up together, but I never knew you.” That song has been counteracted by their demand for “Tips” followed by “I Need A Vacation.”

Because it is entertainment at its brightest, because of the multi-talented cast who has more fun than a barrel of monkeys, because of the animated interactive direction, because the music rocks with musicality, because the thin story line holds together because the songs belong, because it does indeed celebrate life and love in small town USA, because magic circulates through every nook and cranny at Country Dinner Playhouse, Pump Boys and Dinettes should not be missed.

Call early for reservations. Somewhere between Frog Level and Smyma on Highway 57 sits a hit.