Publisher: Elizabeth Hurd

“Always A Bridesmaid” Where There is Always A Hit at Jewel Box Theatre

“Always A Bridesmaid” cast from left to right: Carol McDonald-Walley (Sedalia Ellicott) Denise Hughes (Libby Ruth Ames) Larrissa Garvin (Kari Ames-Bissette) Amy Kelly as (Charlie Collins) Teri Hood (Monette Gentry) and Christine Jolly (Deedra Wingate) Photo by Jim Beckel, The Oklahoman

Always a Bridesmaid, never a bride is an old saying that usually doesn’t come true, and certainly isn’t true for the characters in the play “Always A Bridesmaid” now showing at the Jewel Box Theatre in Oklahoma City.  Not the 1943 film, it is the play written 70 years later by Jones Hope Wooten, the collaboration of writers, Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten.  This production is directed by Doobie Potter, a woman who understands directing women perfectly, and the six cast members deliver rapid fire wisecracks that can split a rib under Potter’s expert direction.

A young bride, Kari Ames-Bissette, is joined by her mother Libby Ruth Ames and her lifelong friends, Monette Gentry, Charlie Collins, and Deedra Wingate at a bridal retreat ran by Sedalia Ellicott. The foursome vowed to always walk down the aisle whenever anyone of them got married no matter what.  Kari Ames, soon to be Ames-Bissette, reminisces about the women’s past weddings and all the disastrous but hilarious events that are the staple of a good wedding.

A wedding is, after all, a production and every production has its share of missed cues and entrances.  Awkward moments, tasteless jokes, overheard insults (deliberate and accidental) and cold feet are common. Kari takes us back to relive the best and worst moments of wedded bliss at Laurelton Oaks under the direction of Sedalia.  Mom (Libby Ruth) is a hopeless romantic with a happy marriage, so there is no memory of her wedding, while each of the other ladies has a wedding story fit to deem them Bridezillas.

“Always A Bridesmaid” is full of zingers and each character has her own delivery that’s special.  Denise Hughes plays Libby Ruth straight out of “Steel Magnolias,” southern charm dripping from the tongue.  Teri Hood is the ever-youthful Monette who loves the men that love her, and she brooks no argument on the kind of man she wants.  Christine Jolly is Deedra Wingate- secure and polished, her successful career and self-assurance is inspiring to the modern woman.  Amy Kelly is very believable as the tomboy Charlie Collins.  She’s not concerned with feminine esthetic, comfort is far more important than style, and hides a delicately feminine core coming from fear of commitment.  Sedalia Ellicott is the consummate business woman and Carol McDonald Walley has her slightly grasping, dollar stretching attitude down pat.  These are older woman we are all familiar with, the ones we know and love, and occasionally ridicule, but they can laugh and prank with the best of them.  “Always A Bridesmaid” is a bit of the “Golden Girls” blended with “Designing Women” and a dollop of “Smokey and the Bandit” with some pretensions but not a drop of “Gone With the Wind.” 

Larrissa Garvin as Kari Ames-Bissette, has a more substantive role.  Her wedding reception speech is interrupted by the scenes she recalls played out in slapstick comedy, but her humor is allowed to develop over a period, giving her a uniquely solid part for this play.  Her demeanor dissolves as she imbibes the champagne, and one imagines that the groom will have his hands full.

All six members of this delightful cast are directed beautifully by Doobie Potter and “Always A Bridesmaid” is certainly a very amusing way to spend an evening, the combination of acceptably risqué behavior and illicit charm rather than illicit love is as asset that delights the audience. 

“Always A Bridesmaid” plays through May 6, 2018 at the Jewel Box Theatre, sponsored by the First Christian Church Under the Dome.  Located at 3700 N. Walker Avenue in Oklahoma City, Jewel Box has plenty of parking.  Curtain is at 8:00 pm Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings with a 2:30 pm Sunday matinee.  Visit www.jewelboxtheatre.org or call 405-521-1786 for tickets and information.  The box office is open Tuesday through Saturday afternoon.