By Robert W. Bethune
Watching grown men be silly is fun, especially when the grown men being silly are as comfortable in their skins and in their characters as are Joseph Albright, B. J. Love and Bruce Bennet, currently performing "Guys On Ice" under Tony Casselli's direction at the Williamston Theatre.
When you have a good thing going, you keep on doing it. Casselli directed Albright as Marvin at the Purple Rose back in 2001, and they're back at it again with excellent results. Albright has a very listenable voice combined with the big frame you expect of his character, a factory worker and devoted ice fisherman in Door County. He's just a northern good ol' boy, happy to be alive, hopeful about the woman at the checkout counter of the local grocery, and devoted to the high gods of Wisconsin, better known as the Green Bay Packers.
B. J. Love as Lloyd doesn't have a great voice, but he talks his way through a song pretty well, and the music in this musical doesn't demand much more than that. What he does have is also physical – the way a man moves who's had a lot of beer and bad food in his life, who patiently endures his marriage, who can look up at the freezing dawn in a Wisconsin winter and sing to us very touchingly about the beauty of it all.
As Ernie the Moocher, Bennett is the perfect pest. I say no more.
The best part of the silliness is when these big guys get up and – well, they don't dance, they hoof. And they absolutely don't care how silly they are when they hoof. Especially when Marvin hoofs like he thinks Elvis used to hoof. John Smith, the lone accompanist, keeps them on the beat and off they go.
'Guys on Ice'
Williamston Theatre, 122 S. Putnam, Williamston. Thu.-Sun., through Nov. 11. Tickets: $18-$24. For information: 517-655-7469 or http://www.williamstontheatre.org
