Joe Plummer really has his hands full. As co-playwright along with Jaye T. Stewart, he’s also the director, choreographer, song composer and lyricist, along with Jaye and Debi Stewart, it’s his responsibility to sink or swim “Get Ready,” a dramedy now getting a crackerjack staging by New Horizon Theater. Set in Chicago in the 1990s, the co-playwrights ease into the narrative with a mild boss-employee tete-a-tete. J. R. (Manny Walker) sweeps the floor of his employer’s dance studio rather reluctantly, while his employer, Knobby Coles (Art Terry) tries to spur him on with some sarcastic banter. The humorous razzing that ensues between the two is nearly equally balanced as J. R. isn’t one to be bullied and is quick with his verbal rebounds. The tempo increases dramatically with the arrival of four of the crooners that make up the Doves, a 60s doo-wop quintet that dropped out of the limelight. Hoping to make a comeback twenty years after their prime, the singers begin to reha...
The personal blog of western Pennsylvania journalist Dave Zuchowski.