“Room Service” is a wonderful 1930s screwball comedy to be performed by Colorado Mesa University’s Theatre Department.
It is a light hearted play that will have viewers cracking up from beginning till the end. From the cast to the crew, the Fall 2021 production of “Room Service” has something for everyone looking for a good laugh.
“This play came out of the depression and it kind of feels like depression again lately. Coming out of COVID I just was like, ‘I don’t want to do anything serious, I don’t want anything with a message,’” said director of “Room Service” Benjamin Reigel.
Reigel wanted to do something for those stressed by the world to take a two hour break and enjoy a comedy.
Taking place in the 1930s, Broadway producer Gordon Miller, played by Keenan Clements, is on his last dime and takes refuge in a hotel trying to get his production of “Godspeed” off the ground. All while ringing up a huge hotel bill for the cast lodging, production cost and room service.
After staying at the hotel for weeks, his sister-in law and hotel manager Josephine Gribble, played by Nic Rhodes, warns Gordan and his staff that they need to leave the hotel before her manager sees the massive bill.
After being found out by the hotel’s head manager Gregory Wagner, played by Ian Rowzee, Gordan and his gang of theater entrepreneurs need to stall from being kicked out of the hotel so they can meet with a backer, the money man, to fund the play.
“Screwball comedy comes out of the 30s […] turns sexual tension into banter. Two characters substitute flirting with wicked insults and back and forth really fast,” Reigel said.
Reigel explained how the play’s “minimalist dialogue comes out of this writer’s, it’s fast and fun, sharp. So the acting style is different from everything we teach, which is usually by diction and motion, which we’ve been trying to bring out.”
“Room Service” sends viewers on a crazy journey from tricking a debt collector to faking an illness to accomplish their goals of putting on a Broadway production. All this takes place in one hotel room with no room service.
You can see “Room Service” on Nov. 4 and 5 at 7:30 pm as well as Nov. 6 at 2:00 pm and 7:30 pm. at the Robinson Theater. Tickets can be found on the University Tickets app on Colorado Mesa University’s (CMU) website. Tickets are $22 for adults, $18 for seniors, $8 for youth and CMU students get in free.
