School pals put on 'Fancee Panties' for some laughs
Back at Boston Latin, Carolynne Warren was the captain of the pep club, while Mary Callanan was the team mascot. "She was enthusiastic, but I got to wear the costume," Callanan says with a sly smile.
Tonight the two singer/actresses team up again in "Fancee Panties," a musical-comedy revue written by Warren that's having its world premiere at the Stuart Street Playhouse, with additional performances July 25 and Aug. 22.
Stuart Street Playhouse producing director Nick Paleologos says the summer is the perfect time to try new things at the Playhouse. "I'm a huge fan of Mary Callanan and Carolynne Warren, audiences love them, and they took me up on the offer to present something new," he says.
Warren says the opportunity to create new material with her high school friend was a gift. "We showed Nick a small piece that included a funny scene and a song, and he said go for it," Warren says. "We were able to create something that showcases what we're good at."
"Fancee Panties" is a 90-minute collection of character-driven songs and sketches built around Warren's notion that "wearing fancy underwear makes you sassy. We can have fun with that," she says.
The show, with music ranging from country to opera and folk, includes parodies of songs from "Les Miserables" and "The Music Man" and sketches that reflect Warren's training at Chicago's Second City.
"I've had people compare me to Bette Midler," Warren says, "but my voice is more operatic than rock 'n' roll. Plus, my comedy is more like Lily Tomlin, if she sang," she says.
"Most of my original work has been one- or two-person shows," says Warren, who went from Boston Latin to Harvard before heading to Chicago and most recently Los Angeles, where Tim Allen ("The Santa Clause") directed her in "Ms. Fits!" "I'm a big fan of Mary, and our comic styles complement each other. When we reunited with 'Menopause The Musical' [at the Playhouse], I thought she'd be the perfect partner."
Warren has written all the material for "Fancee Panties," but she's been encouraging future contributions from Callanan, a popular cabaret performer. "I do music with funny around it in my cabaret shows," Callanan says. "This is much more theatrical and character driven. I don't know about this," she adds, sheepishly pulling out a girlish Mary Engelbreit-decorated notebook Warren has given her for inspiration and note-taking.
Warren immediately starts teasing Callanan, and it's easy to see how the two personalities will work together onstage.
"Boston is home for us," Warren says, "and our comic sensibility is colored by that shared history. We do a section on growing up Italian in Dorchester to reflect my family roots, and growing up Irish in Brighton to reflect Mary's background."
Tonight's performance is the first of what the duo hopes will be several return visits to the Playhouse through the summer. "We'd like this performance to be a very special event," says Warren, "and then when we return we'll have new material from Mary's notebook and some old favorites."
Tickets: $25. 800-447-7400, telecharge.com
Notes
Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater launches its new Harbor Stage Company July 2 with the world premiere of "Shortstack," a collection of six short comic plays from Rolin Jones ("The Intelligent Design of Jenny Chow," HBO's "Weeds"). "Shortstack" and two other plays ("The Mistakes Madeline Made," July 30-Aug. 24, and "Sexual Perversity in Chicago," Aug. 27-Sept. 21) will all be directed by Brendan Hughes at the Harbor Stage, and the same four actors - Jonathan Fielding, Stacy Fischer, Robert Kropf, and Brenda Withers - will perform in all three shows. Tickets: $29. 508-349-9428, what.org . . . Gurnet Theatre Project, which finishes its run of Adam Rapp's "Essential Self-Defense" this weekend, will return to the Boston Center for the Arts' Black Box Theatre with Neil LaBute's "Some Girl(s)" Jan. 9-24. Tickets on sale in the fall: gurnettheatre.com
