'Trailer Park Musical' Comes To Edinburgh and UK
By: BWW News Desk Jun. 30, 2008
Direct from a record breaking US tour, the Off-Broadway cult favorite The Great American Trailer Park Musical parks itself at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for 3 weeks this summer. Presented by New York based Producers Eva Price for Maximum Entertainment and Janet Pailet for P2 Creations, and West End producer Lee Menzies, this European premiere will be followed by a one week engagement at Live Nation's Alexander Theater in Birmingham, England in anticipation of a national tour throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland beginning in 2009.
With this year's unofficial theme at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival being "Americana", just like Jerry Springer The Opera broke new ground, and made audiences blush, at The Festival in 2002; Trailer Park intends on making just as many jaws drop.When Pippi "the stripper on the run" comes between Dr Phil-loving, agoraphobic Jeannie and her toll collector husband, the storms begin to brew – and we ain't talkin' about any old Florida hurricane! With an outrageous and electrifying score, written by David Nehls from a book by Betsy Kelso, the show may deal with spray cheese, road kill, hysterical pregnancy and other problems indigenous to life in a "mobile home community", but it is the colorful characters and lasting friendships that are the heart of this irreverent musical comedy.While the show has been touring across the US to great audience response and record breaking box office receipts, this is the first time The Great American Trailer Park Musical will be seen in the UK. An all-out comic assault on the American red-neck and "white trailer trash", the show is in the satirical tradition of Jerry Springer – The Opera and Tony Blair – The Musical, both smashes at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Producers Eva Price, Janet Pailet, and Lee Menzies firmly believe audiences in the UK will take to Trailer Park, and are already planning a UK tour following Edinburgh, beginning with dates at the Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham the week after the Fringe.The critics love the bright-hearted humor and the lovable characters. They describe The Great American Trailer Park Musical as "The musical comedy equivalent of cheese fries, GATP is a cheerfully trashy treat that offers plenty of finger-lickin fun." – Star Ledger. liz smith from the New York Post said, "The joint is jammed and jumping! Lots of raucous laughter is shaking the walls where a new musical is delighting audiences. The show is a little like 'The Honeymooners' meet 'The Best Little Whorehouse in Urinetown'! " And the New York Times wrote, "Every song is full of surprises, as the music slips across the dial of American radio from country to blues to rock to disco to bump and grind and R&B."
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