RV Travels With Huggy

Last winter a new dinner theater opened in our city of Mount Vernon, WA. We attended the first production the new River Belle Dinner Theater presented in January. Last night we went to our second of their productions, this one called, "Kitchen Witches."

Here is the cover of the program we were given. The play is set entirely in one scene but as it is over a period of a few weeks, some things change. It starts out with Dolly Biddle staring in a cooking show called "Baking with Babcha" being produced by her daughter, Stephanie, for the local Cable Channel 4. Babcha is supposedly a Ukrainian cook.


Unfortunately the show has been canceled and this taping is the last one. Here is Dolly on the main (and only) set for the show with Stephanie in the background, out of camera view, directing.


Since it is the last show, Dolly decided to pick out one of her favorite aprons to wear, much to the chagrin of Stephanie. I like it and in fact bought some tickets to try to win the apron in a drawing after the last playing of the show. I'd like to get that apron for Pat- I am sure she would love it (yeah, sure!) I should know soon after the end of June if I did win.


The show that had been on in the month before Baking with Babcha was called "Cooking with Izzie" and featured Isobel Lomax who has known Dolly a long time. In fact they are kind of at odds with each other although we don't fully know why. Yet. Anyway, Isobel arrives on the set and the two give a pretty good display of how they don't like each other.


Stephanie walks off the set to answer her phone (and get away from the bit#*@ng.) It turns out that the call is from the wife of the station owner who really likes the "new" approach these ladies have taken to an entertaining cooking show and she wants the two of them to do a show together and continue the "fun." Stephanie has quite a time talking them into it but finally succeeds.


They decide the new show will be called, "Kitchen Witches" and show up for a rehearsal prior to the first taping. Of course things don't go too well. Here are the two leading ladies along with Stephanie and her assistant, Roberta. The main features of the set are pretty much the same (this is a very low budget cooking show) but there is no agreement on what costumes the two stars will wear.


When it is time for the first taping, Dolly sneaks into Isobel's dressing room and steals her clothes while Isobel is in the shower. Dolly leaves her idea of a costume for Isobel and since that is her only option when she gets out of the shower, Isobel comes onto the set in that outfit. She is not a happy cooker.


The taping of the show starts and it isn't too long before they start bickering with each other. One thing leads to another and Dolly takes a rubber paddle and paints Isobel's face with chocolate.


Not one to let bygones be bygones, Isobel takes the dough she has been mixing and stuffs it down Dolly's blouse which doesn't please Dolly.


Stephanie is able to patch things up to the point where they return the next week to produce another show. I don't know who picked out these costumes but at least they kind of match each other. At some point, Stephanie learns these two have known each other since early in their school years and in fact dated the same guy, Stephanie's Dad, who has been deceased for some time. Isobel went away to chef school in Paris and when she returned four years later, she had a short affair with the guy who by then is Dolly's husband. Of course she gets pregnant but they arrange an adoption of the baby, so Stephanie knows she is adopted but doesn't know her Dad is her actual father, nor that Isobel is her mother. Until now.


Somehow they stay on track with the show. One feature this day is a race where the two stars prepare a dish from ingredients selected by Stephanie. They have only a few minutes to prepare the dish, then a judge is selected who will determine which is best. Here is Lex, the control room techie, who was drafted for judge duty, put into a large bib and is about to be fed by the two stars. It seems like a loose - loose situation for him to me!

Dolly has not been feeling well, with severe stomach cramps, and after the show is taken to the hospital.

That gives Isobel and Stephanie time to talk with each other, while sharing a bottle of Dolly's booze.


Isobel is shown here during her talk with Stephanie.

As taping time for the next show approaches it looks like Isobel will have to do the show herself, but no....

Dolly leaves the hospital and comes directly to the studio to participate in the taping.


It looks like the bickering will start up where it left off and Stephanie has about had enough of it. She is just coming to terms herself with the knowledge that she has two Moms and all of this is just a bit too much.

Finally we learn that an intestinal blockage was Dolly's problem and it has finally cleared out. When it cleared out, she learned what had happened to Isobel's missing ring. It apparently had fallen into the biscuit dough she was mixing and during the food fight, stuffed down Dolly's dress. Dolly, never one to waste food, ate the dough which caused her to have an intestinal blockage that put her in the hospital.

Here she happily presents Isobel with the ring which magically appeared about the same time her blockage cleared. Isobel isn't sure she wants it anymore so presents it to Stephanie as it is a family heirloom from her father's side of the family.

Things get patched up, at least for the moment, and it looks like they will learn to live with each other and a shared daughter. Although the ending sort of leaves that all up in the air for the viewer to figure out.


Here the cast, except for Lex who is running the lights, are taking their final bow. It was a fun evening, good food, and we will look forward to going back for another play in the future. Boy though, seeing a family like that one sure makes me appreciate mine that is just pretty normal!

There was pretty good stage lighting and by pushing my camera's ISO up to 1600, I was able to take pretty sharp photos. The ladies who stared in the play are also interested in seeing them and getting a copy of at least some of them. These have all had the color cast of stage lighting corrected but that would be quite a project to do with all of them, about 88 photos! I'll have to decide how to proceed with these photos.

Labels: Entertainment, Humor, Photos