LOGAN – It felt like family night at the Ellen Eccles Theatre on Nov. 23, when it seemed as if half of Cache Valley turned out for the premier of Juanito Bandito and the Shootout at Jingle Junction.
Most of those local residents brought along their kids to see the Christmas show, creating a rowdy and boisterous crowd that filled the theater and probably just made the “Pickleville on Tour” cast feel right at home.
Come to think, it was like a family night on-stage as well. Director/writer/composer TJ Davis and his brother Derek (who directs productions at the rustic Pickleville Playhouse in Garden City) opened the show with an old favorite tune called “I Don’t Like Christmas (I Love It).”
In Juanito Bandito/Shootout, TJ Davis (playing the title role) is also joined on-stage by incomparable Kenzie Kremin (neé Davis) who sang and danced up a storm as one of his bandit sidekicks. Back-stage, his wife Erin Davis was managing costumes and sister Sharli Davis King served as choreographer.
It doesn’t seem fair that one family has all that talent, does it?
To be honest, the paper-thin plot of Juanito Bandito/Shootout really doesn’t have much to do with Christmas other than the fact that its “McGuffin” is Santa’s naughty and nice list of boys and girls (look it up, folks). In fact, Santa Claus – played by local native Cary Youmans – only appears in a five-minute cameo at the end of the show.
But who cares? The music and dancing in Juanito Bandito/Shootout are lively, the comedy is so broadly funny that it appeals to all ages and the cast is having a ball, which naturally inclined the packed-house audience to go along for the ride.
In addition to talented professionals like TJ Davis and Ms. Kremin, the cast also featured gifted local scene-stealer Kyle Cottam, last seen here in Four Season Theatre Company and Music Theatre West productions.
Freed from the constraints of copyrighted scripts, Cottam instinctively fell into Pickleville’s trademark habit of ad-libbing while brilliantly portraying the underhanded Sheriff Rudolph Van Grizz. Cottam is also no slouch when it comes to physical comedy.
As always, the “Pickleville on Tour” crew plays with the audience (Juanito is totally jealous of any man who can actually grow a moustache), riffs on the predominant religion and can’t resist taking topical shots at sitting targets like Taylor Swift and woke sensibilities. For example, in the role of Tilly McGee, Ms. Kremin has a hilarious gender crisis when called upon to masquerade as a man to join a posse.
Other cast members include Jayden Barrera as the sore-footed bandit sidekick Tommy; Chrissy Andreasen as Amelia Everlight, a hot-shot reporter eager to interview Juanito Bandito; and Garrett Stephenson as Jake Lawson, a lawman who turns out to be a little too good to be true.
The performance of Juanito Bandito and the Shootout at Jingle Junction on Nov. 23 at the Ellen Eccles Theatre was the first of two stops in Logan by the “Pickelville on Tour” company during the holiday season. The second visit will be a more extended local run a month later.
Evening performances of Juanito Bandito and the Shootout at Jingle Junction during that second visit are set for 7 p.m. on Dec. 20, 21 and 23, with a single matinee slated for 2 p.m. on the afternoon of Dec. 21.