Friday, April 10th the Lake Forest College Music Department performed the musical No, No, Nanette directed by Kathleen van de Graff (music), Nicholas Wallin (orchestra), and Melissa Grady (chorus) at First Presbyterian Church of Lake Forest.
The musical followed the life of a successful Bible publisher named Jimmy Smith, played by Carlos Esturain, who, on his many travels regarding his business, finds himself becoming the sugar daddy for three needy single women. Though he doesn’t engage in any physical contact with Betty Brown, played by Lily Collins ’18, Flora Lathan, played by Hannah Speck ’15, or Winnie Winslow, played by April Tosado ’16, he definitely provides them with enough money to keep them happy. Wanting to make everyone happy wouldn’t be such a crime if Jimmy wasn’t married to his unsuspecting wife Sue Smith, played by Shelby Homiston ’17.
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Jimmy also has a niece named Nanette, played by Valerie Perron ’15, who feels that she’s in the prime of her life. Despite her relationship with Tom Trainor, played by Robin Knickerbocker ’17, who is ready to propose and settle down, Nanette wants to go out with her favorite girls to Atlantic City for a fun-filled weekend. Uncle Jimmy accompanies her along with the comedic house maid Pauline, played by Medora Sweet ’17.
While Nanette is enjoying her youth, Uncle Jimmy and his lawyers are trying to pay off the three single women he’s been “sponsoring” to protect his marriage, all the while incriminating his lawyer Billy Early, played by Alex Steele ’15, as the suspicious husband, which then threatens his marriage to wife Lucille Early, played by Sam Kaser ’15.
This musical not only featured the beautiful voices of the actors but some of the voices from the Lake Forest College Choir and the violin, bass, drums, cello, and piano of the Lake Forest College Orchestra. Being set in the 1920s, the musical bridged the audience age gap with laughter when insults like “then you can go fly a kite” were thrown at one another.
I was able to catch one of Jimmy’s mistresses, Betty Brown from Boston, and when asked how she enjoyed playing the sassy mistress, she responded, “It was great. It’s one of the reasons why I love doing theater. You get to behave in ways you wouldn’t in real life.”
I followed up by asking if she isn’t a sassy side mistress in real life, and she laughed and said, “Well, I’m not a side mistress, but I sure am sassy.”
To see more talent from both the music and theater department, catch next year’s Lake Forest College fall production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s H.M.S. Pinafore directed by Geoff Button.
