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Apple Corps

Trio of PIT performers band together with parody of boogie-woogie 1940s performers


Pictured: Sarah Lowe, Rebekka Johnson and Kimmy Gatewood.

The Apple Sisters Variety Show, a parody of 1940s feel-good pop trio The Andrews Sisters (think of “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” and you’ll know the style), spices up the act while still being accessible enough to tour outside of New York -- something the group may be planning.

The trio, Kimmy Gatewood, Rebekka Johnson and Sarah Lowe, performed their Halloween show at the People’s Improv Theater on October 26 and has some Thanksgiving themed performances coming up there as well.

The Apple Sisters between song sketches in fact end up being more creative than the songs they do. In the songs they might slip in a stray dirty line or two that gets you laughing out of shock more than out of their being clever. One exception though was a song, “Dos and Don’ts,” that had a surprising strident chorus of sweetly sung “Do, do, do” followed by screamed “Don’t! Don’t Don’t!” where the trio transformed into raging medusas instantly.

With the sketches between songs, the Apple Sisters present themselves as bubble-headed and ditzy -- assuming this is a poke at what 1940s girl groups probably did as stage patter in their shows, although without having seen those, I can’t be certain.

For example, Gatewood plays at thinking she’s invisible, and that guest performer Chris Caniglia, as a cop, can’t see her as she makes goofy movements around him. This all culminates in a closing piece about a Halloween serial killer (also Caniglia) chasing the girls, about which Johnson concludes (when asked what the moral of the story or skit is), “I learned when you’re scared of something, kill it.”

As the Apple Sisters, the trio, who all have parts performing, directing or writing in other shows at The PIT, have a show that succeeds as a send-up of a type of performance from the historical past while not undermining the form with their take on it (the skits and especially the lyrics of the songs) so much that it is unrecognizable.

The Apple Sisters are scheduled to continue performing regularly at The PIT 7 p.m. Fridays in November and December.

  

   

     

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