Should you like The Golden Ladies, the basic TV sitcom about 4 ladies of a sure age who’re nonetheless roaring with life, you’ll admire The Misplaced Virginity Tour. The comedy, written by Cricket Daniel and directed by John Morogiello, is now being staged by Finest Drugs Rep and taking part in on the Author’s Middle in Bethesda, Maryland.
The Misplaced Virginity Tour is the story of 4 mates from the Pleased Trails Senior Resort who determine to take a street journey collectively to the locations the place every of them misplaced their virginity.
The solid is fabulous — in an over-the-top, sharp-witted, playing-it-to-the-hilt means. Liz Weber because the Oprah-homily-slinging Rita; Crystal Henry Arful-Addoh because the delicate Elaine; Tracy Dibon Coffey because the four-times married Italian-American Jersey lady, Viola; and Jill Vanderweit because the prim and correct, by no means married, Southern belle Kitty. They hit each comedian line, regardless of how trite, with verve.
These stellar actresses give spirit to a play that appears trapped in time, a time when it was rule-breaking to current older ladies joking about intercourse and growing old. One small second, after they first appeared of their matching road-trip T-shirts, demonstrated how dated this work felt. There may be some dialogue concerning the locations they’re visiting: “We’re not the Rolling Stones,” quipped Rita, earlier than Viola retorts, “Yeah, we’re youthful.” This will get laughs due to the sharp-edged supply, however it landed on me like one of many many retreads on this play.
On her web site, the playwright states that one in every of her desires is to be in a sitcom author’s room. She actually appears to be aiming at that right here in The Misplaced Virginity Tour.
This comedy does have its extra severe turns. Monologues from our Jersey lady (Dibon Coffey) and our Southern belle (Vanderweit) are fantastically performed in deep, dramatic moments. Heartfelt pathos reveals their hidden secrets and techniques. However these tragedies are shortly spun by way of, all is sweet once more, and they’re off to the subsequent cease on their tour, one other fast minimize, a scene break that felt as very similar to the beat for a tv industrial break because it did like a play’s considerate transition to the subsequent scene.
One needs the depth of the writing matched the depth of the gifted solid’s performing. Sadly, the play culminates in a collection of well-worn strains, “there aren’t any accidents… there aren’t any regrets…this street journey isn’t about our previous however about discovering our futures…”
The directing, by John Morogiello, is usually frenetic. These women are hardly ever nonetheless, and so they punch by way of their punch strains. One needs for the pacing to decelerate, to interrupt the sitcom mode, to interrupt the fourth wall even, and let the remembrance of tragedy deepen the current. Finest Drugs Rep makes a speciality of comedy, and I might be desperate to see extra productions from this Maryland-based theater group, which has introduced collectively this gifted solid. This explicit script alternative, nonetheless, didn’t work for me.
Alternatively, the sound design, additionally by Morogiello, hits all the fitting notes with upbeat on-the-road pop tunes working laborious to attach the scenes as the chums journey from North Carolina to New Jersey to Indiana to Colorado. The set and projection design by Douglas Becker works seamlessly. The costume design by Elizabeth Kemmerer, significantly particulars just like the outsized silver pocketbook for Viola and the group T-shirts emblazoned with “The Misplaced Virginity Tour,” works properly and provides to the enjoyable.
I’m not in opposition to old school comedy and enjoyable, and this manufacturing of The Misplaced Virginity Tour has its moments – however most of all, it has its solid spinning gold out of straw.
Working Time: One hour and 45 minutes with a 15-minute intermission.
The Misplaced Virginity Tour performs by way of March 29, 2026 (performances on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 PM; matinees on Saturday and Sunday at 3:00 PM), offered by Finest Drugs Rep Theater Firm, acting at The Author’s Middle, 4508 Walsh St, Bethesda, MD. Buy tickets ($31.95 common, $21.95 senior/pupil) on-line, on the door, or by contacting the Field Workplace at BestMedicineRep@gmail.com.
The Misplaced Virginity Tour
A comedy by Cricket Daniel
Directed by John Morogiello
