Garage Theatre Cast Brings Plenty of Energy to Meaningless Melodrama

The Garage Theatre always closes the calendar year with family-friendly liteness. More often than not during the company’s 25-year history that slot has been given to an installment from an in-house, five-episode “melodrama” cycle by Jamie Sweet concerning the adventures of Rod McGirdlebutt as he tries to forestall the misdeeds of malevolent magician Ian Sidious at Long Beach’s Pike Amusement Park back when there was an actual roller-coaster down by the water and not just that big white latticed thingie we’ve got hovering across Shoreline Drive today.

“Melodrama” goes in scare quotes because this isn’t really melodrama, and if you don’t giggle at names like “McGirdlebutt” and “Scrufflepicklewickle,” most of the humor won’t land with you in November/December at the Garage from now (Part One of the cycle, which they’re mounting for the third time) through 2027. But if want your holiday season imbued with silliness as its own end performed with a but-this-amp-goes-to-11 gusto, come on in and take a seat.

Don’t even hope for a coherent plot. In an intentional ripoff of Back to the Future, present-day Rod (Diana Kaufmann) must go back in time to…well, it’s not really clear. It’s suggested that he’s got to prevent his own death by stopping a roller-coaster car from riding off the rails and into the sea, but this doesn’t have anything to do with what happens onstage this time out. Rather, this one’s all about Rod romancing ace reporter Dixie Troobaloo (Lola Binks), while the aforementioned Sidious (Vincent Zamora) attempts various dastardly deeds. There’s some other stuff that sorta happens, including several interdimensional sideroads, but even if you fully dig what you’re seeing, you won’t care.

It’s clear the cast has tons of fun with their ridiculous roles, and on opening night the audience was full of folks who appreciate such schtick, which includes throwing (faux) tomatoes — distributed in ample amounts before the show — at the bad guy (which Zamora handles with amusing aplomb). 

Because not much matters here besides the energy, there’s no  point talking about anything else. To that end, one major misfire is that the show closes with three scenes of denouement, the first of which is a natural ending, and so the last two hamstring the momentum and bring the proceedings to a limping finish. 

Otherwise, although Terror at the Pike (or How Come There Aren’t Any Waves in Long Beach?) is what it is (full disclosure: it’s not for me), those charmed by silly voices and nonsensical hullabaloo may find much to laugh at. I’d say the target demographic is 4th- and 5th-graders, but the all-adult audience around me had a gay ol’ time, so…..

Terror at the Pike (or How Come There Aren’t Any Waves in Long Beach?) at the Garage Theatre
Times: Thursday–Saturday 8:00 p.m.
The show runs through December 16 (but no performances Thanksgiving weekend).
Cost: $18–$25 (Thursdays 2-for-1); closing night w/afterparty: $30
Details: thegaragetheatre.org
Venue: The Garage Theatre, 251 E. 7th St., Long Beach