Get your reading glasses, pack your Geritol, and prepare for “Four Old Broads” to hit the stage at the Chico Theater Company.
Directed by Melodie Ellison, the comedy premieres this Friday and runs until March 29.
Set in the early 1990s, this comedic play by Leslie Kimbell centers on a group of sassy senior women in an assisted living facility who decide to investigate a mystery involving a new nurse and a suspicious pill.
“It really does take you into a nostalgia drive of watching a sitcom, of falling in love with characters that you just know are a good time when you're immersed in it."- Owen Hansen, Chico Theater Company executive director
Producer and Chico Theater Company’s Executive Director, Owen Hansen, said the show is reminiscent of classic sitcoms like “The Golden Girls.”
“It really does take you into a nostalgia drive of watching a sitcom, of falling in love with characters that you just know are a good time when you're immersed in it,” Hansen said.
Hansen feels this particular production will play well in Chico, particularly with an older audience, which is common for classic theater troupes.
“You can't help but fall in love with it,” Hansen said.
Stage veteran Julia Thompson will be performing as Beatrice Shelton. It’s a firecracker of a role where she plays an ex-burlesque dancer up to no good at the assisted living facility.
“We get to know these characters a bit, and we get to love them,” Thompson said.
Thompson’s background is mostly in musicals. She said she’s returning to a nonmusical for the first time since the 1990s.
For her, it’s a much-welcome departure, as she noted the scarcity of substantial roles for older actors, particularly women.
“… if you have an idea and you want to do something, go for it, because you only live once.”- Sandy Huseth, actress
“There are fewer and fewer of them, and so it is quite fun to have a role that really has to carry the show,” Thompson said.
Actress Sandy Huseth, who plays Imogene Fletcher, added that the production does a wonderful job of displaying friendship and second chances.
“And realizing that at a certain age you don't have to give up if you have an idea and you want to do something, go for it, because you only live once,” Huseth said.
