When “Pump Boys and Dinettes” ended its 245-week, 1,978-performance, nearly-five-year run at the Apollo Theatre on July 9, 1989, the folksy little show about the four boys and two girls who hang out at the gas station and diner just off Highway 57 had entered the record books as the longest-running musical in Chicago history.
That record has since been eclipsed by “Forever Plaid,” now in its sixth year in the small cabaret space of the Royal George Theatre; and “Pump Boys” has been out of sight in the city for more than a decade. All of a sudden, however, Jim, Jackson, L.M., Eddie, Rhetta and Prudie are back among us, pumping gas, slinging hash and singing songs in a flurry of suburban revivals.
First of the new productions to open is the show at Theatre at the Center in Munster, Ind.
Once again, Jackson jumps to the beat of his love song to “Mona,” the bebopping checkout cashier at the Target store; Jim croons gently about childhood joys with his beloved grandma “Mamaw”; Eddie the bassist looks forward to the next fishing trip; L.M. tells about “The Night Dolly Parton Was Almost Mine”; and Rhetta and Prudie, the Cupp sisters at the Double Cupp Diner, hawk their banana cream pies and sally out into the audience looking for “Tips.”
Once more, Uncle Bob is on the phone asking about the long overdue repairs on his Winnebago; and, just like old times, one lucky person in the audience wins a brand new automobile air freshener in a raffle and gets to pose with the cast for a Polaroid.
The boys still believe in “Taking It Slow” at work, and the girls still offer a full menu, including fresh catfish, to their diners.
In other words, the charms of this feel-good musical remain small–and genuine. The songs, from the gentle “Sister” to the rousing “No Holds Barred” to the harmony of “Fisherman’s Prayer,” continue to be hummable; the down-home tales of life in Frog Level, N.C., do not turn stale; the characters, from sassy Rhetta to the shy L.M., do not wear out their welcome.
The Munster production is played on a thrust stage too large for the musical’s intimacy; but set designer Ann N. Davis nonetheless has filled the wide, broad expanse with billboards, posters, Christmas-tree lights, booths, a counter and a juke box.
The cast–David Warren Bacon as Jackson, Tim Rezash as Eddie, Greg Walter as L.M., Beth Gelman as Rhetta, Jane Baxter Miller as Prudie and Robert Kahn (a bit too smarmy) as Jim, the host and principal narrator–sings well, plays many instruments, and encourages the audience to clap hands and join in the good times.
Spending a little under two hours with them is, as always, a good tonic for what ails you.
———- “Pump Boys and Dinettes”
When: Through June 18
Where: Theatre at the Center, 1040 Ridge Rd., Munster, Ind. Phone: 219-836-3255
