In a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the Honey Boo Boos of this world, with a passing homage to the reality television show "Toddlers and Tiaras,"a new musical by Bert Bernardi and Justin Rugg is a holiday happening. "Glitz! The Little Miss Christmas Pageant Musical" will take you behind the scenes of the mother-daughter hijinxs that are attached to this mystical event.
Pantochino Productions will offer this inside peek behind the velvet curtain weekends until Saturday, December 22 at the Milford Center for the Arts, the town's railroad station, 40 Railroad Avenue, Milford. Bert Bernardi directs a large cast of beauty winner wannabes and their pushy and frantic mamas as they all compete for the coveted title.
Center stage is the master of ceremonies and pageant director, one Shayde Shams, whose name says it all. He is shady and a sham. Claiming the pageant is to benefit a charity for sick children, he has every intention of pocketing all the proceeds for himself. Jimmy Johansmeyer's sleazy Shayde needs to learn a lesson or three about being nice and not naughty.
To that end, Shayde is visited by the ghost of Jacob Marley (a la Dicken's "A Christmas Carol") and warned to repent by the ghosts of pageants past, present and yet to come. George Spelvin takes on all these roles with panache. Thankfully Shayde mends his ways with the help and encouragement of the precocious contestants Haily (Dani Corrigan), Sophia (Cassie Gerace), Goodness Gracious (Peyton Iott), Taylor (Elise Sullivan) and Barbie (Kylie Poggio) and their manipulating and motivating mothers Helen (Dale Allen), Mugsy (Shelley Marsh Poggio), Marybeth (Jennifer Smith), Olivia (Mary Mannix) and Cheryl (Katie Durham).
Get into the Christmas spirit as this fiercely competitive talent show allows the mothers and daughters to learn the value of truth and honesty. Songs like "The Pageant Life Is For Me" and "My Daughter's Better Than Yours"
say it all, especially the confessional appeal of "I Want to be Like Valerie Bertinelli."
For tickets ($16), call Pantochino Productions at 203-937-6206 or online at info@pantochinoproductions.com. Performances are Friday at 7:30 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m with no performances Saturday, December 15.
Take a bevy of little beauties, in ruffled socks and black patent leather shoes, add make-up and ambition and talent, sequins and spangles, and you have all the ingredients for an entertaining new holiday happening.
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