GREENSBORO – The Highland Center for the Arts in Greensboro was the venue for the Happenstance Theater’s tribute to Vaudeville, “Pocket Moxie,” performed last Friday night. Dressed in turn-of-the-century costumes, the five players evoked the old music hall and variety shows of the traveling troupes that brought light entertainment to cities, towns and villages all across the country, such as the Hardwick Town House and the Hyde Park and Haskell Opera Houses. The Happenstance Theater consisted of Gwen Grastorf, Mark Jaster, Sabrina Mandell, Sarah Olmsted Thomas and Alex Vernon.
The term vaudeville originated in France, traced to a tradition of satirical songs based on popular tunes going as far back as the 15th century in Normandy. It had its heyday in Europe and America during the Ninetenth and early Twentieth centuries, until it gradually lost out to recorded music, radio, movies and finally television. But vaudeville provided the background training for many actors and actresses who went on to highly successful careers in theater and film, such as Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Lillian Russel and W.C. Fields. Hardwick’s own Vermont Vaudeville of pre-Covid days demonstrated how the medium could be revived and attract sold-out houses to a wide spectrum of audiences.
The troop began by entering the stage in a row as if on a train, complete with a tooting whistle, for vaudevillians lived a vagabond life on the road, one described as half gypsy and half suitcase. They sang about coming to the next town to perform. A second song was something of an advertisement for “Pocket Moxie,” always helpful when things go wrong. It was the custom to have ads interspersed between the acts of a show. A few jokes were exchanged about the hotel they were staying at, followed by yet another advertisement, this time for tooth powder. A short skit featuring an ax seemed a little ominous, but then a woman dressed like an alpine maiden named Hildegard of Bingham, came out and did a spoof on yodeling.
A ventriloquist scene with Alex Vernon and Woodie the puppet was amusing, as were songs and dialogue around a stuffed cat held by one of the women. Mark Jaster then played the “Londonerry Air” on a bending saw with a violin bow, as well as “Danny Boy,” both quite accurately on the notes. The Alpine maiden appeared again, but her yodeling was cut short by the classic vaudeville censor, a long wooden cane with a hook that dragged her out of view.
Alex Vernon came on as a magician with a series of silly tricks, including trying to hypnotize one of the women, turning her into a chicken and a monkey. A second volunteer from the audience was treated for headaches by placing a wooden box with a crank handle over her head. More jokes about the hotel and then another advertisement where one of the women put her face in a hole of a placard with a bathing suit below.
A kind of barber shop quintet brought all the group together for coordinated dances and a song with a nice melody. A Spanish flamenco dancer was accompanied by castanets off stage, while the next skit was a mock altercation between Vernon and Jaster planting small flags on supposedly disputed territory. An advertisement for Pablum Pattys claimed that they were good for you.
Quite clever was the baby sister blues act, with two of the actresses standing behind and manipulating two puppets of small girls in dresses, with their feet on a table, dancing and singing together. A caricature of Hamlet’s famous soliloquy “To be or not to be,” was quite funny. Jaster played the guitar in a nice rendition of an old favorite song, “Shine on Harvest Moon,” in which the whole troupe joined in, while Vernon animated a very small Pierrot puppet. Then there were even more jokes about the hotel and its bad food.
The longest act in the show was of a cook and two waiters setting a fancy dinner table. They went through some ridiculous antics arranging the tablecloth, the silverware, plates and cups just right, but then rapidly pulling the tablecloth out from under the utensils, leaving everything intact, as well as absurdly juggling meatballs the cook had brought out. The final attempt to yank the tablecloth off the table ended with everything on the floor. Their last number was the haunting tune, “The Melody Lingers On,” and they exited in a line tooting the train whistle, just as they had entered at the beginning of thes how.
All of the performers were clearly having fun giving the audience a taste of old-time vaudeville with its varied comic acts. The performers continue their New England tour by going to Maine this week.
David K. Rodgers
David K. Rodgers is a writer, mason and card carrying dilettante, who dabbles and babbles in art. He has lived in East Craftsbury for the past 40 years.
