Come ‘Escape to Margaritaville’ this spring

Summer lovers can look forward to beach-side tunes and shenanigans earlier than July with the CM Performing Arts Center’s springtime rendition of Jimmy Buffett’s “Escape to Margaritaville,” which opened on Saturday, March 29, to an audience ready to dance and have some fun with beach balls dropping from the ceiling.

A staple of frozen drink weather, Jimmy Buffett’s rich-in-storytelling tunes are woven into a splashy, fun, and enjoyable romantic comedy where odd couples fall for each other under the vacation sun and umbrellas.

Director Jason Furnari’s tropical paradise, the Margaritaville Hotel, and the rambunctious staff and equally playful tourists that are shuttled in every week, is a playground for forgetting the daily grind. The blocking of the stage was superb in terms of moving the plot and the quick changes in scenes.

In capturing the island getaway, John Mazzarella’s set design, with a type of amalgamation of all things Caribbean and Floridian, and Ronald R. Green’s timeless wardrobe choices for vacationers, from ready and raunchy bikinis to staid and conservative skorts to gothic 1960s horror in the dead insurance agents, led the audience into a laid-back sunshine of the show.

Heather Van Velsor’s props, which included the intricate items of the Margaritaville bar, created a cohesive and realistic retreat for those looking to get away from the 9-to-5 grind.

Choreographer Ruben Fernandez kept the energy flowing in dance numbers that glided seamlessly between dialogue. With big, dynamic numbers that had dancers sprawled across the entire span of the stage, Fernandez kept the group synergy high while providing dancers with individual character moves.

Tully (Jason Steven Kopp), the guitar-addled Lothario who finally wants to grow up after meeting the driven and bookish Rachel (Veronica Fox), were a delight to watch, especially during the tender scene where Tully gives Rachel his beloved gri-gri necklace and we see her give into something that isn’t quite as scientific as her usual interests.

Vocally, the pair also balance each other nicely, turning Buffett’smusic into scores that seemed made for multiple voices, especially in numbers where Kopp and Fox hold notes strongly for big, bravado endings.

Tammy (Sarah Klaum) and Brick (James O’Connor) were the heart and soul of this production, with Klaum as the terrorized fiancée of Chadd (played like the embodiment of an keyboard warrior incel by Logan Glorioso, who managed to bring a serious tone to the production with his body-shaming and general obnoxiousness to Tammy’s self-esteem).

O’Connor’s Brick was the everyman of good guys and had such chemistry with Klaum with their characters’ love of puns, food, and drink that their cheeseburger scene seemed orgasmic.

Marley (Malika-Batchie-Lockhart) and J.D. (John Mazzarella), as the perpetual residents of Margaritaville, stole the show with their larger-than-life characters and great vocal work as resort owner and somewhat long-in-the-tooth pilot.

A bit of a spoiler alert, but their bedroom scene was as hilarious and tender as any Viagra commercial from the ‘90s could have been.

Eddie Martinez as comedic foil, Jamal, had standout physical comedy skills and pacing, particularly with the bar sign scene changes.

Carl Hottinger, leading the Margaritaville house band, had clear calypso influences and the breeziness of an Aruban wave, and brought the house down at the end of the night with patrons dancing along to “Margaritaville.”