Queen’s Players delivered an eclectic spring performance of “A Dollygoodes Double-Double Pete-ture: The Fabulous Chipwreck Schoolidge of Rock” to a sold-out audience on March 30.
Over a marathon four-hour performance, the sketch comedy musical company welcomed a chaotic crew of pop culture icons to the Living Room at The Mansion.
Queen’s students laughed and sang as they watched Frank-N-Furter, Jennifer Coolidge, Alvin the Chipmunk, Sharpay and Ryan Evans, Mickey Mouse, a Queen’s Commerce student, and other characters struggle to survive after their cruise ship crashed on the Frontenac Islands.
“The way picking a theme works is our director kind of pitches the show theme during the interview process,” Queen’s Players President Brock Jekill, ArtSci ’23, told The Journal.
“We got this pitch for being having a plot of a 1000 Island cruise crashing on an island and it seemed really fun.”
The cast of Players gathers to write the script all together, making the event in its entirety a collaborative project.
In between comedic scenes, individual cast members broke out and sang solo covers on stage. As with any Players’ show, the tradition of yelling “Sing!” whenever a song title was mentioned and “Seamless!” whenever a cast or crew member made a mistake made for a riotous night.
The music selection ranged from 2000s party classics like “Disturbia” by Rihanna to alt rock hits like Panic! At The Disco’s “I Write Sins not Tragedies” and Gorillaz’s “Feel Good Inc.,” to all of which the audience enthusiastically chanted along. The musical accompaniment, provided by Pascal’s Weiners, was replete with grooving bass lines and blaring horns, though the cast also provided some acapella performances.
As their time on the deserted island grew, the cast’s antics descended into delightful chaos as they debated the merits of eating Alvin the Chipmunk, tried to build a raft and swim off the island, and even held an impromptu Hunger Games tournament.
One particularly memorable sequence involved Mickey Mouse starting a fight club on the island, prompting all the characters to enter a rap battle before the cast took off their costumes and started ridiculing each other.
Omar Baboolal’s tongue-in-cheek performance as a self-absorbed Commerce student riffed upon popular stereotypes of one of the University’s most well-known programs, while Adam Falconer’s portrayal of Mickey Mouse as a vicious Disney puppet—complete with the iconic voice—was another one of the night’s standouts.
It’s no secret, however, that Players shows often play fast and loose with the plot, with the main draw being the mayhem that ensues at each performance. The cast members became increasingly inebriated—and less clothed—as the audience bought them drinks as the show went on.
All that money ultimately went to a good cause: Queen’s Players donates the proceeds ofeach show to charity. Last year, the show donated $43,000 to local causes.
When asked what keeps members coming back, Tiana Lam, ArtSci ’23, said the strength of the community is the glue holding Players together.
“When I joined Players, it was the first time I ever felt like I truly belong on like, the space in Queen’s,” Players Vice-President Emily Perrino, ArtSci ’23, said in an interview with The Journal.
“I just kind of clicked with everyone. There was a feeling of like, ‘oh, this is where I’m meant to be like, this is this is what I want to do.’ That’s what keeps me coming back: that sense of belonging and also the desire to kind of instill that belonging in other people.”
Queen’s Players has continued to entertain students for over a century. Their shows are surely not one to miss for any Queen’s student who wants to have a good time while also supporting a worthwhile cause.
Corrections
A previous version of this article stated that Duke D’Amato had played Mickey Mouse rather than Adam Falconer and has since been corrected.
The Journal regrets the error
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