GREENSBORO – Charleen Stevens Watson, for many years a summer resident in Greensboro, is an accomplished pianist, student of theater and now a composer, creating an original musical show entitled “Stews,” based in part on her experiences as an airline stewardess in the 1970s. She wrote the engaging melodies and meaningful lyrics as well as the book, making an entertaining performance with a dozen other players on Saturday evening, August 17 at the United Church of Christ in Greensboro.
The format was 10 of the participants reading from the script on music stands in front of them, while Charleen and Karen Miller alternated on piano accompanying the songs.
For two acts with eight scenes each, the cast consisted of a narrator, five stewardesses, a pilot, co-pilot, navigator, flight engineer, two Navy soldiers going to Vietnam, a dispatcher and a chaplin, some of the roles doubled by the same person. The plot very skillfully intertwines developing love affairs between the stewardesses, pilots and Navy men with the background of the tragic war in Vietnam, carefully evoking a whole different time some 50 years ago.
In the opening scene, the stewardesses were being checked out by their head, Maggie, played by Rosann Hickey Cook, and all sing an upbeat tune about the pleasures of their glamorous job flying. Captain Sam, portrayed by Scott Watson, and Lee, the flight engineer, acted by John Bradshaw, then checked out the plane and the passengers were loaded. Maggie gave the standard “in the unlikely event” instructions.
A second tune, inspired by a Beethoven melody, had the whole crew singing about the joys of flying through the sky, “over the rivers, the mountains and the oceans, as free as can be,” with the captain having a solo part in his very pleasant tenor voice. Joe, a Navy medic, also played by Scott Watson, and one of the stewardesses, Fran, performed by Federica Velutini-Hoffman, fall in love at first sight, and he sings a paen to her beauty, an “angel of light.” They were scheduled to stop in Hawaii in their flight over the Pacific, and the next scene was a beach where Joe and Fran had a lovely duet in nicely blended voices about the magic of being together. Velutini-Hoffman had a fine soprano with good projection and range. On a more serious matter, their conversation turned to the dangers of going to the war in Vietnam. In another Hawaiian scene, Phil the navigator, played by John Bradshaw, and Allie a stewardess, who Catie Smith characterized, woke up in bed together, and she sings a solo in her clear, pure voice. At a bar, Watson (As Captain Sam), Bradshaw (as Lee, the flight engineer) and Jan Terwiesch (as Bill, the copilot) joined in a rollicking tune with humorous lyrics about how men like to come and go and not be controlled.
The second act is sometime later after the soldiers have been delivered to Vietnam. Joe the Navy medic has gotten a letter from Fran and he writes back. Joe and Buddy, the Navy sailor, another role covered by Jan Terwiesch, discussed their fears of going up the Mecong River in a P.T. boat, and when they make the trip, Buddy gets killed by a sniper. The following scene returns to the airplane with a juxtaposed mundane training session for the stewardesses about medical emergencies on board, like a passenger having a heart attack. Bradshaw, Velutini-Hoffman and Smith had a nice trio together.
Another stewardess, Jill, acted by Lucy Mitchell, announced she is going to get married to the co-pilot Bill, while Fran received a delayed letter from Joe, who had been captured by the Vietcong. She sang a moving love song, fearing that she will never see him again. The affair between Allie and Phil continued with some bumps, and she sang a tune with a little blues element in it. In the meantime, Fran, thinking Joe had died, had connected with Captain Sam, and he sang about how happy they could be if they married.
On a return flight from Vietnam, another stewardess, Betty, portrayed by Marie Schmukel, recognized Joe, who now had a beard, and who survived his captivity by taking care of wounded Vietcong soldiers and then somehow escaped. Fran and Joe got back together but they hesitated to go further in their relationship, agreeing that they will try to get to know each other better, possibly in New York City, where Fran was going to be in a show. The musical ended with the stewardesses singing a repeat of the first tune in the piece.
Michael Smith was the narrator, and the Reverend Dr. Ed Sunday-Winters was both Hank, the dispatcher and the chaplin, while Kyle Gray helped in technical assistance.