To Have and Too Old
Rose Brichen and Daisy Nicely feel saddled by their husband’s ailments and want desperately to go on a Mediterranean cruise. When Rose enlists Daisy on a plan to fulfill their dream, the results are unexpected but may be best for everyone.
Genre: Comedy
Length: Full-length stageplay
Cast: 7 male, 4 female
Awards: Finalist, 2004 McLaren Comedy Playwriting Festival
Produced: The Maverick Players, 2007, 10 performances
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Midland Reporter-Telegram Review:
MyWestTexas.com Arts & Entertainment 04/20/2007
One on the Aisle- To Have and Too Old
By: Dan D’Amario
One again Dan D’Amario serves up a winner for the Maverick Players Comedy Theater in their Midland Park Mall home. TO HAVE AND TOO OLD was a third place finalist in 2004. Every year he’s given us a finalist. This particular play would make a cute movie of the week.
After many years of marriage, couples get old and in some cases – cranky. This cast was well chosen in so many ways. The two couples live in what sounds like a little retirement community in Florida. The two women are healthier than their husbands and the husbands sound like two men on death’s door.
Cindy Oglesby plays Rose. Ms. Oglesby is used to being given the free reign of any stage she is on. Everyone else has to play catch up with her for prominence on the stage. Not Saturday night. Sharing the stage with her is Jean Fitzpatrick as the other wife, Daisy. They play off one another well. Where Ms. Oglesby is the shrill Southern woman with the husband and son she has had to put up with for too long, Ms. Fitzpatrick is the little traditional Jewish housewife with the “on death’s door” husband, carrying around his oxygen and doing her sewing. They are opposites with the same goal, how to get rid of these two men.
Cliff Voake is Barney, Rose’s husband. Rose is only in his life to bring him his apple juice as he inhabits his chair, watching the game and coughing and snorting. Barney is a slob, as is their son Bernie played by Buddy Fazzio. Bernie moves in on his retired parents after he gets out of the penitentiary. What a piece of work he turns out to be. Look in the dictionary under dysfunctional family and you’ll see their picture.
Jim Huddleston plays Arnie, Daisy’s husband. Wearing his sweat bands and exercise clothes, pulling around his oxygen tank you wonder how either woman hasn’t done away with the men in their lives.
Our cute co-conspiriters think they’ve found the way to rid themselves of these two princes for their insurance money only to have their plan backfire, and that’s all I’m going to say about it!
Rounding out this cast is Leslie Short playing Perky Pilates the community exercise lady. The men go to her classes with their exercise gear on to sit in the back and watch her. Aaron Roper plays Perky’s jealous boyfriend Buck Abflexor. Mark Wheeler plays a strange minister and Gene Houk is Dr. Katz who lost his marbles a long time ago. David Willis and Andrea Cruz are two police officers who become embroiled in their mess.
TO HAVE AND TOO OLD is a funny look at retirement and marriage. Congratulations to director Jean Fitzpatrick and the Maverick crew.
Call the box office at 522-5225 and reserve your seat until April 29. It is a fun night out.
Pamela C. Allen can be reached at 687-8881 or pa@mrt.com.
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