By Sandi Masori
SAN DIEGO — Wow! Wow! Wow! Every once in a while, you get to see a show that is so amazing, so well done, so flowing and funny, that you know you’re witnessing the birth of something huge. Listening in to the audience around me at intermission I heard thoughts echoing my own “wow”, “omg it’s sooooo good”, “what are we watching, this is incredible”, “there are plays, and then there are plays!” And this is just a small sample of the accolades I heard floating around.
What’s the play you may wonder? It’s Regency Girls, now playing and produced by the Old Globe. Written by Jennifer Crittenden and Gabrielle Allan (known for television’s Seinfeld, Scrubs, Veep), music by Curtis Moore (of Marvelous Mrs. Maisel fame), lyrics by Amanda Green (Tony and Grammy nominee), and choreographed and directed by Josh Rhodes (Spamalot), this show is everything you would expect from such a lineup.
It’s one of those cases of not being able to judge a show by its summary- after all who would think that one of the best new musicals to come out since Hamilton would be a musical about abortion in the early 1800s? And yet here we are.
To quickly summarize the plot, set in 1810 England, the play opens with the “happy ending” right in the very beginning. Sisters Jane (Kate Rockwell) and Elinor (Isabelle McCalla) get engaged to exactly the right kind of suitors for noble society, saving their family from financial ruin. Jane and her betrothed Dingley (Gabe Gibbs) seem to be doing it because that’s what was done, while Elinor and her beau Stanton (Nik Walker) seem to be truly in love, and on the evening before Stanton and Dingley take off for a year’s journey to America, they indulge their passions. Stanton’s aunt Lady Catherine (Janine LaManna) is against the engagement as she has plans to marry her own daughter off to Stanton.
After the boys leave Elinor soon finds herself sick but only in the morning, and is horrified to realize that she might be pregnant. Such a thing would ruin not only her reputation but cast shame on her entire family and make it impossible for either of her sisters to get married either. Her maid Dabney (Krystina Alabado) suggests that a visit to Madame Restell’s (also played by Janine LaManna) women’s clinic could solve the problem. Unbeknownst to the audience at the time, Dabney is also unmarried and in the family way.
In order to make the long journey to London, they need a chaperone — after all unmarried society women can’t just travel around on their own. But since the mission is secret, Elinor and Dabney, along with Jane and their friend Petunia (Ryann Redmond) decide that Elinor and Petunia will disguise themselves as men for the journey.
Watching Elinor and Petunia learn to be men and swing their proverbial D around is hilarious. Beyond hilarious. Roll-on-the-floor-hilarious. And this is saying something for a show that delivers not only ear wormy music, but a high LPM (laughs per minute) factor.
Really, giving the plot summary in this case does nothing to explain the experience of watching the show. The humor is surprising and at times anachronistic, and did I say hilarious? Let me say it again. Now we are dealing with some adult subject matter, and while all of the real raunchiness is alluded to and done off stage, there are many well placed and effective F-bombs dropped during some of the songs. One of the especially funny songs is called “Jane finds her Tingle” but I think it should be called “Are you sh**ing me!?” As that’s the main lyric. Beware the song might go home with you- though there are several other ear- wormy anthems in the show that might vie for position in your brain.
The pace is quick, you are immediately drawn into the conflict, and both first and second act will have you in stitches. Everything about this show works. And I am so relieved. (Full disclosure, one of my friends is a producer so I was really hoping that it wouldn’t suck, I wasn’t prepared for how phenomenal it is though.) Along with the catchy tunes, flawless acting, and fast-paced humor, there’s also a real political message about women’s rights and bodily autonomy being delivered.
Some of the actors have been part of the show since the beginning of its development in 2017. It’s interesting that in some ways the play was prophetic to some of the things happening now in our country. Written before Roe v Wade was struck down, they had no idea just how big an issue it would be.
Huge props to all of the cast, but doubly to Gabe Gibbs for his dual role of Dingley and Galloping Dick- including a hilarious (I just can’t stop using that word) scene in which he as Dick fights with himself as Dingley, done by being half in each costume and turning from side to side. LaManna also played dual roles of Lady Catherine and Madame Restell.
I could go on and on praising this one, but I think you get the idea. Listening to the audience as they left the theater, I imagine we were all feeling the same thing that the early audiences for Hamilton felt- the wonder and awe of a legend being born.
Though in its first week, Regency Girls has already been extended and plays through May 11.
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Sandi Masori is a theater and restaurant reviewer for San Diego Jewish World.