The cast of the ‘Pickleville on Tour’ production of ‘The Legend of El Diablo’ strut their stuff in a wildly improbable hip hop love song at the Ellen Eccles Theatre on Friday evening. They are (from left) Alec Foote, Sara White, TJ Davis and Nathan Kremin.
LOGAN – The “Pickleville on Tour” cast of The Legend of El Diablo hit their stride on Friday, May 5 at the Ellen Eccles Theatre and kept right on galloping at breakneck speed.
If you’ve been keeping track of this “Pickleville Playhouse” spinoff troupe, you know that their Halloween Laugh-Fest in October of 2022 was amusing and their production of Juandito’s Christmas Carol last December pulled heartstrings because its become something of a holiday tradition here in Cache Valley.
But The Legend of El Diablo is a brand new, original musical melodrama and it was hilarious from start to finish.
The “Pickleville on Tour” show was performed for a packed house in the Ellen Eccles Theatre, largely due to survivors of commencement at Utah State University looking for a chance to relax before heading out of the valley. What they got instead was a laugh riot.
In his favorite role as Juandito, playwright TJ Davis starts off the show by breaking the fourth wall to criticize a hopelessly optimistic opening song and dance number, promising the audience that he’ll have a few words with the composer and writer.
Get it?
That’s just the first of the show’s numerous inside jokes – it’s loaded with them, including the usual Mormon digs and a couple of quips about how the script-writer should go back to dental school.
The plot of The Legend of El Diablo is pure tomfoolery. Juandito must beat out his evil brother to secure a lost treasure. Of course, since Davis plays both roles, they can never be on stage simultaneously, making a confrontation practically impossible.
Don’t worry – just go with it.
The show’s cast is small, but their energy is enormous.
Among the other production numbers is a rap song complete with hip hop choreography that Juandito performs to woe the lovely but unimpressed pirate maiden Clara, charmingly played by Whitney Hatch Glauser.
Clara actually has eyes for Sheriff Griff, played by studly Benjamin Phillips. Davis has written the would-be lovers a nice duet in the first act and their voices blend beautify.
The real surprise of the night is Nathan Kremin, who has obviously been wasting his time performing strong, silent, straight roles in Pickleville productions like Beauty and the Beast and The Addams Family.
In The Legend of El Diablo, Kremin is revealed as a scene-stealer from the word go, with improv skills to rival legendary Pickleville performers like Jordan Todd Brown and Slater Ashenhurst.
Even Davis doffed his hat to Kremin’s skills in the curtain call, acknowledging that nobody on stage had a better time than Kremin.
Another familiar face in the “Pickleville on Tour” cast was Sara White, fresh from her outstanding performance in the recent Music Theater West production of Newsies.
Rounding out the cast is Alec Foote as one of Juandito’s inept henchmen.
Additional performances of The Legend of El Diablo are slated for 1 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 6.
The Ellen Eccles Theatre is located at 43 S Main Street in downtown Logan.