SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Feb. 19, 2017 (Gephardt Daily) — “Women in Jeopardy!,” in its Utah premiere at Pioneer Theatre Company, can boast interesting sets and good actors.
The script of the new comedy, however, is not quite at the quality level where it needs to be.
The jokes — including a few about Utah — need to be just a little closer together, and a little more clever and innovative. The script needs to decide if it’s a gentle modern comedy (in which case, add more depth and subtract the actors’ mugging) or a full-on farce (add a lot more laughs and more consistent silliness).
What “Women in Jeopardy” really comes off as is a TV comedy which has talented actors and designers, but which is having a particularly weak episode.
The script, by Wendy MacLeod, finds three women, divorced friends “of a certain age,” looking for love and excitement. One, blond and buxom Liz (Elizabeth Meadows Rouse), believes she has found her man — a weird and socially inept dentist named Jackson (Joe Gately) who totally creeps out Liz’s friends, Mary (Anne Tolpegin) and Jo (Rosalyn Coleman).
When Jackson’s hygienist disappears and foul play is suspected, he becomes a suspect, and Mary and Jo fear their love-struck girlfriend is on track for for a gruesome fate.
And when Liz’s young adult daughter, Amanda (Betsy Helmer), agrees to go camping with Jackson, a covert plot to save her is launched and her clueless ex-beau, Trenner (C.J. Strong) is recruited to help.
But not before Mary and Jo head to the local police station to seek help from a sergeant (also played by Gately) to seek advice.
The action then moves to a remote campsite in Southern Utah, where the off-and-on merriment continues, wending its way toward a fairly predictable resolution.
Director Karen Azenberg, the actors and the designers all seem to have done their best, but they cannot overcome the weak and uneven script.
