Susan Granger’s review of “Garlic: The Musical” (Consiglio’s patio, New Haven, CT)
Summer stock is a unique form of American theater. It began in the early part of the 20th century when playwrights, directors, actors and producers wanted a summer venue for light entertainment. Often, barns were converted into theaters; other times, the festivities spilled onto patios.
Writer Elizabeth Fuller has carved her own special summer theater niche at Consiglio’s Restaurant in New Haven’s historic Italian enclave on Wooster Street, presenting what she calls “spaghetti musicals.” Last year, it was “Nonna’s Summer Wine Party” and, before that, “The Luigi Board.”
Now, it’s “Garlic: The Musical,” a spicy, interactive musical comedy which recounts how protective fortysomething Tony Bob (Barry McMurtrey) is determined to stop his adoptive sister Diana (Laura Papallo) from falling for Duke (Gary Cavello), a voracious vampire, on the family’s garlic ranch in Calabria, Italy. Inspired in a dream sequence by his guardian, Johnny Angel (Gary Cavello), Tony Bob drops out of Spumoni Heights Beauty School and becomes the concert promoter for GARLICSTOCK.
There’s sing-along, dance-along music, primarily oldies from the ‘50s and ‘60s, orchestrated by PJ Letersky, along with good-natured audience participation. It’s great fun, like being at a celebratory party with 50 new friends. And the food is delicious, beginning with platters of hot, crusty garlic bread, followed by a crisp Caesar salad, vodka penne, chicken Florentine on a bed of fresh baby spinach and generous helpings of tiramisu for dessert. It’s authentic Southern Italian fare.
And if the versatile performers seem far more professional than you’d expected, so are their resumes. Although she lip-syncs most of the time, Laura Papallo has performed with the Connecticut Light Opera Chorus and Battleboro Opera Theater; for the past 15 years, she’s been guest soloist in Venice, Verona, Sorrento, Sicily, Florence and Assisi. So it shouldn’t be as surprising as it is when she makes “Over the Rainbow” soar into the stars twinkling in the night sky. And Gary Cavello regularly appears in the Old Time Radio recreations at Fairfield University’s Quick Center for the Arts; he’s also published “Where I Ran Away, ” a book of poems/photos about his tour with the Clyde Beatty-Cole Bros. Circus.
“Garlic: The Musical” runs on weekends all summer. Doors open on Friday and Saturday nights at 6 pm and 4 pm on Sundays. It’s $65 for the show and prix fixe menu. For reservations, call Consiglio’s Restaurant, 165 Wooster Street, New Haven, CT at 203-865-4489 (www.consiglios.com)