HOP INTO THE FRYING PAN WITH "THE KITCHEN WITCHES"

   KRISTIN CENEVIVA AS DOLLY AND BARBARA HORAN AS IZZY

What could be more entertaining than watching a cable access television show "Baking with Babcha?"  So what if Babcha rambles with a Russian accent and has a strong affinity for her liquid cooking ingredients like vodka and bourbon? Her borscht and cabbage rolls are to die for.  With her son Stephen as her enthusiastic producer, it's a downright shame Babcha is being cancelled.

You're invited to be in the audience for that final broadcast as Connecticut Cabaret Theatre presents "The Kitchen Witches" by Caroline Smith weekends until Saturday, April 11.  You never know what might happen.  It's live television after all. Babcha, who is really Dolly Biddle, just might have her Last Ukranian Supper interrupted by her mortal enemy and rival chef Isobel Lomax, better known as Izzy to her friends.

These ladies duel with ladles, rolling pins and wooden spoons at thirty paces when Izzy shows up uninvited in Dolly's television kitchen.  The two exchange verbal volleys of insults that have been brewing over three decades of enmity.  It seems Izzy stole Dolly's husband Larry and showed him a lot of her secret family recipes.

Fortunately or not, their cutthroat antics on camera excite the show's producers as well as the viewing audience and soon the two rivals find themselves sharing a ceramic cooking counter on air.  They are quickly sabotaging each other's concoctions, fighting over dressing rooms and playing one upsmanship on stage.  Poor Stephen, an infinitely patient James J. Moran, is caught in the crossfire.  Kristin Ceneviva is terrific as the tippling diva Dolly while Barbara Horan's Isobel is great as she plans to whisk her way to the top of the meringue any way she can.  Linda Kelly enters and exits with an applause sign with aplomb.  Director Kris McMurray plays head chef with culinary and comic skills.

For tickets ($30), call CT Cabaret Theatre, 31-33 Webster Square Road, Berlin at 860-829-1248 or online at www.ctcabaret.com.  Performances are Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., with doors opening at 7:15 p.m.  Desserts and drinks are available at the concession stand or bring your own goodies.

Spices can be sweet, salty or savory but with Dolly and Izzy they can be all three as these long term rivals set their cooking show "The Kitchen Witches" on fire with flames of fun and frivolous frivolity.