*Note: As per the performance eligibility requirements laid out here, this production is not up for HRACT Award consideration.*

There is always something special about an opening night – extra tension in the air, some more nervous running around, extra bouquets of flowers being carefully propped up in the aisles.  While Thursday in the Hofheimer Theater at Virginia Wesleyan University was technically a preview night, much of the same energy permeated the venue – and multiply that by some factor due to this being the very first production for One Night Only Productions, Sofia Magalhaes and Trey DelPo’s new venture, who are also this show’s choreographer and director, respectively.  No matter how many rehearsals you have, you just never quite know how an audience is going to receive a show, what lines are going to hit, what little movements the audience is going to notice and pick up on. 

Luckily, for this production of “The Trail to Oregon!”, one thing the production team didn’t need to worry about was the cast and crew jiving, as this is somewhat of a reunion for much of the team behind LTN’s “Ride the Cyclone” back in the summer.  And – if my elementary school experience of spending my entire once-a-week-for-one-hour-only computer lab time playing a certain computer game with a very similar but inverted name to this show is at all similar to other thirty-somethings… the idea of this show should be appealing to a large group of former (virtual) pioneers – assuming they all, like me, survived their many snake bites, bouts of starvation, broken axles, and river fordings.

So – I walked into the show excited to experience it, and seeing a live band and the cute hand-painted desert set (designed by the aforementioned DelPo) only piqued my interest further.  The opening number, “Gone to Oregon”, immediately sets the tone of this funny, crass, and upbeat show, as the cast irreverently takes liberties with the pronunciation of the word “Oregon” time and again to get it to rhyme with… well… whatever they are trying to rhyme it with.  We also get a little bit of improv-spirit, with the audience being given the chance to name each of the characters during that first song (I suggest coming to the show with some better trail-themed ideas, or you might end up with names the likes of “Cocaine”… although, my dear readers, I dare you to get the last name of this family to be “Peckerwood” for every dress rehearsal and performance, as that was consistently a crowd-pleaser). 

The cast is well-balanced, with each member taking their turn in the limelight, but at their best when interacting with and playing off multiple other cast-mates.  I have to start with the “Ensemble”.  It is not often that a one-person “Ensemble” gets to carry multiple songs… but Jaxon Dick is certainly up for the challenge.  They are down to clown for any schtick, from being a blind ox to being a not blind ox to being a guitar to working for Oregon immigration control to being a baby buffalo, although they shine most as the The Bandit King, spirit-fingering their way through a life of crime and sexual exploits on the trail. 

The patriarch of our core family attempting to make their way to that glimmering light of Oregon is Elijah Ramsey’s Grandpa.  Ramsey, having spent his whole winter in a western after his recent turn in “Desperate Measures”, plays the prototypical cranky old man, who you are never quite sure if you should take him at his word or if he is speaking solely in proverbs and parables (something only magnified by an unexpected but delightful cameo of a certain crustacean late in the evening).  For his part, Ramsey also plays The Bandit King’s side kick (err, side piece?), and is very amusing in the role. 

Moving down the family tree, we have the complicated relationship between Father (Andre Magalhaes) and Mother (Annie O’Shea).  While Mother spends much of the evening looking sternly at Father, and Father spends much of the evening trying to correct prior wrongs with larger and larger gambits, O’Shea and Magalhaes are at their best when their characters let their hair down and have fun in the moment.  My favorite example of that is the song “Speedrun”, a fast-paced number which highlights each of their vocals perfectly.  Also look out for Magalhaes really rocking a red onesie, and O’Shea’s piercing gazes at the band when they play what can only be described as a dysentery ditty.

Doria Martingayle as Daughter is consistently funny as she naively seeks out love on the trail, but somehow, Martingayle is perhaps most hilarious in her bit role as a shopkeeper’s wife when she has nary a line but for her body language, dipping and diving out of the way of Father’s gun.  But then again – Martingayle had the “honor” of singing “You Gotta Go” – and the audience, like the bunch of five-year-olds we are on the inside, couldn’t stop laughing.  And Mariah Mallory’s Son is bright-eyed as she watches how well things bounce along the trail, bringing child-like wonder and her care-free attitude to the trailgoers… right until the realities of frontier life hit in devastating fashion.  A well-executed part by this high school senior with snappy dance moves who we hope to see more of in the future.

Although the humor associated with the trail to Oregon is often darkly related to death, this show sprinkles in a bunch of poop and penis jokes to lighten the mood.  You’ll leave with a new appreciation for the shape of the wheels on your mode of transportation, and with an inability to ever look at a caulk gun the same way again.  And you’ll find out if the family will make it this time… or if this show is destined to end just like every single other time I’ve played the computer game with nearly the same name.