Are You Being Served?

Room Service, a thinly drawn but potentially hilarious comedy from the 1930's opens

Marques Brown,

Stephen Garrett,
Henry McDaniel
and Tony Isbell
in
Room Service at
Theatre Memphis.

at Theatre Memphis this weekend.

The show follows the misadventures of Gordon Miller, a theatre producer and confidence man who's producing Godspeed, a sprawling American epic that begins with the sweeping pageantry of the Revolutionary war, and culminates with the social realism of a coal miners strike in the early 20th-Century. Miller and his cronies think Godspeed, might be a big hit, if the theatre company's massive room service bills at the Times Square Hotel don't tank the production first.

After a successful 1937 run on Broadway, RKO produced a film version of Room Service starring the Marx Brothers. The show's gags can be very funny, as proven by countless revivals over the past half century, but they didn't fit well with the Marx Brothers' well established personas, and the film is widely considered to rank high on a short list of the zainy siblings' lowest achievements.

Theatre Memphis has assembled a top notch cast for its production of Room Service. Marques Brown, Tony Isbell, Henry McDaniel, and Stephen Garrett all take major roles. It is being staged by TM's artistic director Kell Christie.

Think of it as a vintage warm up for Playhouse on the Square's production of The Producers