Escape to Margaritaville in The Book of Theatre

My mother scored free tickets to this show, otherwise I never would have seen it. Unfortunately she’s been sick for weeks with the flu, so my sister and I wound up using the tickets. It was a fun night out, since we went for dinner at my favorite restaurant beforehand, and the show was cute enough, but it’s definitely not one I’d pay to see again. For free though, it made for a good night.

I hadn’t been to my favorite restaurant since the fall, so I was probably more excited about getting to go there, than about seeing the show. They do wonderful seasonal menus, and it’s tapas style, so we always gets to try loads of things. I absolutely adore this place and will be CRUSHED if they ever close.

We had burrata which came on a slice of crispy sourdough bread with prosciutto, tomato jam, and a balsamic reduction drizzled on top. It was like sex in food form. They had burrata on the menu before, but this particular pairing was SO stupid good. I could have licked the plate.

Next we got some charred baby carrots in whipped goat cheese with honey, pomegranate reduction and some crushed pistachios. It was good, but didn’t hit nearly as hard as the burrata which was a hard act to follow. My sister enjoyed it more than I did.

Then we got the dumplings which were on special and a bit weird. They were basically a shumai filling, but encased in more of a fried empanada skin, sitting on a puree of butternut squash, with a few slices of some crispy white/purple veggie on top as garnish. These were ok, they were tasty, but they weren’t out-of-this-world like the food here usually is. I think maybe they needed more of a slaw on top and some acid to offset the sweetness of the butternut squash puree and the shrimp filling. They were just missing something.

Lastly we shared the rabbit lasagna, with housemade pasta, spinach and mushrooms. It was super tasty, but I have noticed a tendency for restaurants to usually overcook rabbit, which makes it loose a lot of its unique flavor, and it winds up tasting more like dark meat from a chicken. I was hoping to get a more pure rabbit experience, but I should have figured that a lasagna has so many ingredients and layers that the rabbit would be a bit lost.

One of the co-owners actually brought out our lasagna, and then afterwards came to chat with us a bit. He always remembers us, and especially loves our mom. He mentioned that his own mother has NEVER come to the restaurant. I was shocked, it’s SO insanely good there, I would feel so blessed if my son owned a restaurant like that. Apparently she also thinks it’s weird that they put rabbit on the menu, and how nobody’s going to order that. We were happy to prove her wrong.

After that we were incredibly stuffed, and more than ready to Escape to Margaritaville. Now I know basically nothing about Jimmy Buffet. I know the titular song, and I know that his fans are known as Parrotheads. That is the extent of what I know about Jimmy Buffet and his music. My sister kept insisting that I MUST know more of his songs, but just not realize it, but this show confirmed that apart from Margaritaville, I didn’t know a single song.

The show was cute enough, but I definitely wouldn’t pay to see it again. The Palace always puts on an incredible show regardless, because the talent they get is just always so top notch, but this is definitely not one of my top shows. Mainly I think because I’m just not a Jimmy Buffet fan. It’s all played very tongue-in-cheek with some fourth wall breaking, and obvious nods to things in the songs, and it was clear that the Parrotheads in the crowds were absolutely loving it.

There was a woman sitting two rows in front of me wearing a headband with two big pink flamingos sticking right out of the top. When the lights started dimming, I said, “Ma’am? Are you planning on wearing that through the whole show?” She turned slightly and said, “Oh, is it blocking your view?” I wanted to say, “The FLAMINGOS that are sticking up about six inches off the top of your head? SURPRISINGLY THEY ARE!” But I was kind, and just said, “Yes, they’re actually blocking a big section of the stage.” She took them off, but I could see her grumbling a bit to her friend next to her, clearly I was spoiling her fun. There were a few other people in her group across the aisle also wearing the stupid things, and the people behind them didn’t say anything to them, because they wore them through the whole first act. I would have been infuriated. You just don’t wear big high headwear at a theatre when people are going to be sitting RIGHT behind you! But I digress!

The guy who played the lead was talented enough, and they need to find someone who can both sing, dance and play the guitar live on stage, but he lacked… something. I don’t know if his acting maybe came across as too natural to work well on stage, but he left me a bit flat. There’s a whole storyline where he gets discovered and eventually makes it big, and it was hard to me to buy that this guy would become a star on his own. He winds up being flanked by two women dancers in several end sequences who sing backup for him, and I kept thinking how they sounded so much better than him. It’s not that he didn’t sing well, he just had no power to his voice, almost like his mic needed to be turned up some to help balance him out more with the people who were more accustomed to stage singing.

The lead girl by comparison was much better, but I had a difficult time buying her romance with the guy lead. The chemistry just wasn’t there for me, but I think it mostly had to do with his flatness. I just found his performance completely unmemorable. She had a good voice, although her vocal tone wasn’t to my liking. I don’t know if I’m using correct vocal terminology, but you know when you can tell someone has a good voice, but it just doesn’t do anything for you in particular? That’s what this woman was like for me. Funnily enough my sister leaned over to say, “Oh she has a good voice!” just as I was thinking, “Eh… not the kind of voice I love.” Which absolutely tracks, because my sister adores Jessica Vosk, and I find her voice leaves me utterly flat. It’s funny how everyone likes and responds to different things.

The two supporting rolls of Tammy and Brick (see? I remember THEIR names!) were by FAR the stars of the show. Brick in particular really stole the show, even though the woman playing Tammy is one of my favorite recurring Palace Theatre players. They were both hilarious together, playing off of one another, and they had completely believable chemistry, even though he looked like he’s in his 20s, and she’s only a few years younger than me. There were some big moments where his character was on his own though, and he was absolutely eating it. There is a recurring gag where he hallucinates zombie insurance salesmen, and it all culminates with a hysterical dance number. Everyone was applauding for him so much, he finally had to gesture for people to stop so the show could continue. He was great, and I really hope we see him at The Palace again.

Also I have to shout out to the two actors who played Jamal and Marley as they had some really funny moments that had me laughing out loud a lot. The woman playing Marley had been in Beautiful, and I remember being super impressed by her voice, so I was disappointed she didn’t get to do much singing in this one. Hopefully she’ll be another one popping back up in Palace shows every now and then so she gets to do more singing.

It was hilarious watching people around us who were clearly HUGE Jimmy Buffet fans get so excited when new songs started. One guy (who my sister said was clearly hammered) kept loudly clapping when songs would start, and shouting random things at the actors. Like I get it, jukebox musicals bring out the fans, but the fact that they don’t get that there is different etiquette from being at a concert to being at a theatrical performance always amazes me. This is not a Jimmy Buffet tribute band, this is musical theatre! Luckily the actors all just rolled with it, consummate professionals as always.

The whole story was a bit trite, and as jukebox musicals tend to be, felt very deus ex machina at times. But it’s not like I was expecting musical genius from a Jimmy Buffet jukebox musical. It had good energy, and good performers (even the lead guy wasn’t bad, just a little flat), and the choreography was particularly fun. The ensemble was made up of lots of incredible dancers, and they brought a lot of additional life and energy to the hackneyed love story. I got to see a few of my favorite Palace regulars clearly having a blast up on stage, and that always puts a smile on my face. It was cute for what it was, but it definitely did not make me a Jimmy Buffet fan.