Broadway could take a page from the Camp Jabberwocky rehearsal schedule. In the past couple of weeks, amid horseback rides, a Mad Max sail and fishing on the Skipper with a special lookout for the 18-foot shark in our waters, on the nights of July 15 and 16, the 30 campers and 28 counselors mounted a singing and dancing extravaganza that would have made Busby Berkeley proud.
Audience members entered the Greenwood avenue campus to stroll past picnic tables, the famous red bus painted with Lewis Carroll figures, then over a wooden bridge and into the studio whose benches and folding chairs quickly filled up.
A mural of twisty trees from the Tulgey Woods surrounded a bright red curtain which rose up on, tah dah!, none other than Helen Lamb, the camp’s founder who in 1953 brought five children with cerebral palsy to a cottage in the Methodist Camp Ground. Today the campy is a 14-acre site, devoted from mid-June to the end of August to sleepover camp, classes and activities for children and adults with mental and physical disabilities.
The British born Ms. Lamb, in a starched white blouse and black skirt, her hair a white bouffant, recited the Lewis Carroll poem that lent the camp its name: “Beware the Jabberwock, my son! / The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! / Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun / The frumious Bandersnatch!”
As the band trio struck up (Rick Bausman on drums, Kevin Braxton on bass and Brian Weiland on guitar), no one feared any Jabberwock whatsoever, nor was anyone frumious in his or her approach to the fun.
The theme was hit TV shows, and the kick-off was a parody of Dancing With the Stars. Counselors paired off with campers, from the slinky black-sequined twosome who hip-hopped to Michael Jackson’s Billy Jean, to other duos composed of dancers jiving in and out of wheelchairs. Four panelists delivered their verdicts, at the end causing the insulted “Shakira” (camp director Johanna Romero de Slavy) to storm off in a string of Spanish invective.
Other shows they riffed on were Fear Factor, American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, and Ten Years Younger. Some of the star turns included camper Sue Harrington doing a fine Aretha Franklin impression, belting out R-E-S-P-E-C-T with a back up of boys and girls in camp T-shirts grooving and piping in the “whoo! whoo!” parts.
Diminutive camper David Gordon, in a white tuxedo with a gold tie, with huge eyes, a tumble of ginger hair done up for the night in a Liberace pompadour, enchanted every time he appeared on stage.
Another star turn was rendered by camper Beth Ainsworth in a white wig, white blouse and an ankle-length skirt reprising founder Helen Lamb’s recitation of the Jabberwock poem: “All mimsy were the borogoves / And the mome raths outgrabe.”
In the American Idol skit, counselor Teak Garvey, a high school student from New London, N.H., turned in a great Randy Jackson impersonation, right down to the chest thumps and the “Yo! Yo! Check it out!” Beside him, camp co-director Sully Stamour got Paula Abdul down to her most tremulous “You’re amazing!” Camper Jim Farrows nailed the caustic Simon Cowell with the forthright critique, “You suck!”
Meanwhile down on lower stage left, Three Grumpy Men (campers Leif Sebesta and Sam Wood and counselor Jake Palches) kept up a running commentary much like the sardonic trio for the cheesy movies of Mystery Theater 3K. A highlight: After a number called Wendy’s Casserole with live human song and dance ingredients such as Salsa and Cheese, Mr. Sebesta says, “They make a good laxative!” (Meanwhile counselor Sophie Lew, a soon-to-be senior at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, appearing as Ms. Salsa, completely lost it in a paroxysm of laughter).
High hilarity was the keynote of the evening, with the infectious joy of the music, the yuks, and the sheer fun of performance communicating to everyone on and off the stage. In a Sgt. Pepper’s-worthy ensemble finish, two sets of curtains tracked back to reveal a mural splashed with primary colors and tiers of campers and counselors, costumed to the nines, singing “I have a lotta love to give / I have a little time on my hands / I have a lotta love to give TO YOU!!”
Throughout the evening, audience members clapped along and sang with the performers, revealing to the newcomer why Jabberwocky’s talent night is a Standing Room Only affair (on Tuesday evening, following a torrential rain that washed away the event’s posters, there was seating for everyone, but the house was still packed.)
Ms. Romero de Slavy (a nurse and aerobics instructor from Baltimore) dreamed up the TV theme, and both directed and choreographed with the help of Christina Reppert. Celebrated Island drummer Mr. Bausman, who has jammed with Jabberwocky since 1980, was away on important business (getting married), and credited guitarist Mr. Weiland, music teacher at the Oak Bluffs School, as the “hero of the event” for his musical oversight in rehearsals (bass guitarist Mr. Braxton is a counselor who volunteered for the third spot with the band). Wunderkind Island high school student Matt Fisher provided lighting, as he’s been doing for the Vineyard Playhouse.
The show was followed by ice cream and lemonade and a chance to schmooze with the cast in the dining hall, a perfect conclusion to a tasty evening.
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