Area actor/director/producer Naomi Fleetwood-Pyle is coming off her and her troupe’s most popular dinner show ever with 900-plus tickets sold in October for the comedy “Church Basement Ladies.”
And now she finds herself a step away from selling out two 100-seat dinner-theater Christmas Variety Shows today and Sunday at Willow Leaves of Hope in that community. The varied, two-hour presentation features everything from popular local singer Lisa Barrett reprising some of her best Patsy Cline performances to a Seymour ventriloquist to Fleetwood-Pyle herself presenting a bit of Christian rap, a first for her, something of a picture of exuberant adventure on stage.
Last year, her first variety dinner show sold out 200 seats pretty quickly.
“I don’t exactly know the appeal,” Fleetwood-Pyle said. “Maybe because it’s a little different from other things here. Nobody is doing many variety shows locally. So I think that’s part of the appeal. And well, everybody loves Christmas.”
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Not that every skit or number is seasonal. But enough of the material and the acts are precisely that that Fleetwood-Pyle feels the collective impact will be as warm and comforting and homespun as a Currier and Ives print. And the woman seems to know the literal and figurative tastes of ticket buyers from Hope to Greensburg to Shelbyville.
She figures they like a lot of what she likes.
“And I do like my variety,” she said.
Which explains why the two-hour format, presenting essentially the same program today and Sunday, will include stand-up comedy from Jan Tatlock, improv comedy from Pete Law and Cori Brod (“they’re great together,” said Pyle), ventriloquism from Dorothy Tanner, music from singer McKenna Hall and more.
In fact, Fleetwood-Pyle even will throw in her version of a Lucille Ball comedy skit, directed by her husband David.
“But he’s not an attention junkie like I am,” she cracked.
Her idea always has been that people want to feed while they are fed their entertainment.
“So this is one-stop shopping,” she said.
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What: Christmas Variety Shows with everything from music tio comedy.
When: Dinner at 6 p.m. today with the show at 7 p.m., and dinner at 1 p.m. Sunday with the show at 2 p.m.
Where: Willow Leaves of Hope, 326 Jackson St. in Hope.
Tickets: $26 per person, including dinner, salad and show.
Information and reservations: 812-546-0640.
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