Ovation Fellows are current students or recent alumni from Los Angeles area universities. Fellows are paired with a Mentor, currently serving as an Ovation Award voter, and see productions and meet artists around Greater Los Angeles throughout the year. Their articles, posted on LAStageBlog, are intended to be their personal responses to their experiences, and not as critical reviews or representing the views of LA Stage Alliance.

Daniel Everson is an Ovation Fellow from the California Institute for the Arts.

Savin’ Up for Saturday Night, a new musical by Jeff Goode, songs by Richard Levinson, directed by Jeremy Aldridge, choreography by Allison Bibicoff, is now playing at Sacred Fools.

Feel free to kick up your feet or join the country line dancing because this production welcomes audience involvement. At first you might think you walked into a Charlaine Harris novel with Sookie Stackhouse serving you a drink but then the lights dim, a thick no-nonsense bartender, whom the town calls Doc, begins to narrate about small town life, failed love and a girl named Lucinda. The story unfolds as Lucinda, played by Natascha Corrigan, and Eldridge, her ex-husband and bar owner, reveal their corrupt relationship while taking turns singing against each other on stage. Eldridge, played by Brendan Hunt, is more interested in his nightly routine as the bar’s only source of entertainment than his new gal, Patsy, a nervous waitress who’s forced to sing while Eldridge goes on break to fight with ex-wife Lucinda. Resolution comes swiftly as the ex-couple make an effort to rekindle their love, only to realize it’s time to move on and for Lucinda to move out of the small town she’s called home.

Bassist Peter Freiberger, keyboardist David Fraser, guitarist John Groover and drummer John Palmer are the musicians who make up the core ensemble of Savin’ Up for Saturday Night. Fraser tickles the ivory while playing a supporting role in the production as the bar’s honky tonk bandleader whose only obsession is to sing us a song he’s composed. He gets his chance too when “last call” is served.

Savin’ Up for Saturday Night’s whirlwind story takes the audience on a comedic ride of country twang, alcoholics and synchronized dosey-doe while making an honest and genuine attempt to explain why some people are just not meant for each other.

Savin’ Up For Saturday Night at Sacred Fools has an extended run until Oct. 31, 2009.

For more information on Savin’ Up for Saturday Night or Sacred Fools Theatre, click here!