BWW Reviews: TOO MANY COOKS Can't Stop Laughs at Rainbow's Comedy Playhouse

Rainbow's Comedy Playhouse is the new name of what was Rainbow Dinner Theatre, a Lancaster institution, and with the new name have also come some other changes, such as dining options other than the traditional dinner theatre buffet. What hasn't changed is the commitment to comedy - no drama, no angst, on Rainbow's stage. No nearly operatic musicals darkening its doors. This is where one comes, as its new name clearly indicates, to laugh, preferably long and heartily.

As befits an establishment offering laughs and food, TOO MANY COOKS, the current theatrical offering at Rainbow, combines food and farce. Authors Marcia Kash and Douglas Hughes set it in the border territory of Niagara Falls, with both United States and Canadian law enforcement converging on a tiny restaurant on the night of its grand re-opening. Set in 1931, it's placed in the midst of Prohibition, with not only the period concern of Prohibition but with a more modern, and ridiculously funny, illegal immigration problem as a late subplot. And Cindy DiSavino directs it with a hand tight on the pacing.

All of this confusion can't be helped. Irving Bubbalowe (David DiSavino) and his daughter Honey (Anna D. Bailey) are trying to reopen his family's restaurant, and kicking it off by hiring the celebrity chef of the day, Francois LaPluffe, The Singing Chef, as the venue's gastronomic guru. In a blur, LaPluffe decides to return to France before ever arriving at the restaurant, itinerant non-singing chef Frank Plunkett (Jonathan Erkert) arrives seeking work, and singing handyman Mickey (Timothy S. Quigley) tries hiding the bootleg booze he's stored in the restaurant disguised as "Canadian Ham and Bean Soup."

Difficulties accelerate when Mickey's bootlegging boss from Chicago arrives. Once Alfonse Feghetti (Bradley "Bing" Ingersoll) arrives on the scene, with his sidekick Shirley (John Delancey and Doug Cashell), inquiring about the unattended hearse outside the restaurant, trying to get his liquor from Mickey, and finding himself, in Irving's restaurant, in the midst of a mob shootout, things become, well, slightly more complicated.

LaPluffe isn't in the kitchen? But who is? Is it Plunkett? Is it the middle eastern woman who speaks no English? Is it the Hispanic guy that just showed up? Wait - is that LaPluffe or not? There might be too many cooks, if in fact there are any cooks at all running around Bubbalowe's kitchen. When Immigration agent Veronica Snook (Rachel Blauberg) and Mountie Hamilton X. Effing (Joe Winters) try to untangle the problem, is there anything the problem can do but get worse?

It's good, old-fashioned, traditional farce, in a traditional setting, but that's recently written and modern enough, right down to the immigration problems, for a younger audience to enjoy as much as an older one. Like much modern Canadian comedy, it only looks dry on the surface, while it's funny enough to cause tears once it gets going.

Look for Ingersoll's over-the-top performance as "Noodles" Feghetti - can a comic mobster be anything but over the top? - and for Winters' outrageously funny Mountie performance as highlights of a riotously funny show. Watch out, as well, for that laundry chute on the one wall. This is a comedy, and a laundry chute in your face on a comedy set is a laundry chute that will wind up causing further hilarity. Sure, it's predictible. Most comedies, especially farces, are. But it's reassuringly silly, which is something people need.

TOO MANY COOKS can't spoil the laughs on Rainbow's stage any time soon. It runs, fortunately for all, through August 8. Days and meal options affect show pricing, so visit Rainbowcomedy.com for schedules and information, or call 800-292-4301.

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