In the semi-improvised comedy
We Gotta Bingo, two Catholic churches one Irish, the other Italian merge and hit on an idea to bring money to their fledgling institution: Theyll hold bingo nights and pocket the profits. Audience members actually play the game to win prizes at the interactive stage show, which opens this weekend at Playhouse Square. Meanwhile, Helmet & His Voekel Chords crank out polka tunes, and Rosa Dimini serves home-cooked lasagna dinners. Its very broad humor with music and parody, says Andy Tarr, who portrays furniture-store-owner-cum-egomaniacal-numbers-caller Bucky Fuller.
Producers hope We Gotta Bingo takes off like Tony n Tinas Wedding the interactive hit play that became the citys longest-running show in 2003 after logging more than 800 performances in two-and-a-half years. Tarr suspects Bingo will be an even bigger smash partly because its subject matter is something near and dear to Clevelanders hearts. They are in their zone, he says. [Bingo] is what they play, and you dont get in the way. It gets vicious.
For Tarr, the open-ended We Gotta Bingo is an opportunity to bust out of the 9-to-5 grind. His past gigs included substitute teaching and managing hospital supplies. I never thought colostomy bag would be a phrase that I would use so readily by the age of 32, he laughs.
Sundays, 5 p.m.; Tuesdays-Fridays, 7:30 p.m.; Saturdays, 5 & 8:30 p.m., 2007