By Kelly Ashkettle
Note: When actor Charles Lynn Frost was hospitalized with H1N1 in October, the remaining six performances of The Passion of Sister Dottie S. Dixon: Second Helpings” had to be postponed. When we learned that Frost’s recovery would mean three rescheduled shows in the larger Jeanné Wagner Theatre in January, we decided to hold my review until then. So at long last, I can let you know what I thought about my “Second Helpings.”
It’s been said that the highest aim of theater should be to leave the audience moved. If that’s true, then “The Passion of Sister Dottie S. Dixon: Second Helpings” has succeeded on an extraordinary level.
This second incarnation of the show is an evolution; those who didn’t see the first one will still see all its essential points, but those who did will find that the new version builds on their previous experience.
There was a knowingness to the Saturday night crowd; the vibe was that they were attending something they already knew they liked. While Dartsey FoxMoreland (Kent Frogley) played the opening prelude music, people laughed at her intentional mistakes, sang along to some of the words, and clapped enthusiastically and simultaneously on the beats when she played, “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.” It was a shared group experience that reminded me of attending a showing of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” only instead of throwing rice and hot dogs at the screen, Dottie gives you cookies and cushions.
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