In the cool, cool, cool of the evening, it’s still rather hot in Charlotte. So you have a good excuse to flee to the mountains where longtime Queen City favorite Rebecca Koon is starring in Blowing Rock Stage Company’s upcoming Suite Surrender, opening this Friday. The North Carolina premiere of Michael McKeever’s old-timey farce marks the second hook-up between the playwright and Koon. In cahoots with husband Steve Umberger, Koon co-produced McKeever’s Open Season at Spirit Square in July 2003.
The current collaboration with the playwright is closer in one key respect. McKeever is actually in the cast up in Blowing Rock. He’ll be portraying Mr. Pippet, private secretary to the legendary Claudia McFadden, one of two Hollywood superdivas vying for the same luxury suite at the Palm Beach Royale Hotel.
Koon isn’t the only CL Best Actress onstage. Kim Cozort, a two-time winner in Lost in Yonkers (1994) and The Goat (2006) is one of the leading ladies in a cast that also includes Lynn Llewelyn and Beth Dimon. Mistaken identities, double entendres, and gargantuan egos abound through July 12 at the Hayes Performing Arts Center. Defying all logic, Claudia McFadden and Athena Sinclair probably won’t succeed in killing each other or clawing each other to shreds amid the mayhem and carnage.
Plenty of ventilation awaits you up in the mountains – with a high probability of hilarious hyperventilation.
This article appears in Jun 30 – Jul 7, 2009.
