Doing favors for family is hard enough when they’re still alive

Actors Theatre of Indiana (ATI) continues their 2025-26 season with Lucky Stiff, a musical farce from Stephen Flaherty (music) and Lynn Ahrens (lyrics and book), the same team that brought us Ragtime. This rather complex and zany tale opened off-Broadway in 1988, and was made into a film in 2015.

ATI’s production, directed with a flourish by Lysa Fox, with apt choreography and musical direction by Carol Worcel and Brandon Vos, features a team of energetic performers. Fashioned as a farce, there is a certain over-the-top quality that works splendidly given the storyline:

A young Brit shoe salesman, Harry Witherspoon, receives a telegram from the USA telling him his uncle (whom he has never met) has died and he is the sole heir to $6 million. There is a catch to receiving the money, however. Harry must take his uncle’s corpse to Monte Carlo for a week of gambling and other pleasures. This, of course, breaks open a plotline of various crazy circumstances which leads the audience on a merry and very funny ride.

What makes this whole premise work is the fine portrayals by the troupe of well-directed players. Jacob A. Butler stars as Harry, bringing a perfectly placed performance. Butler handles his character’s predicament with a solid array of songs about his anguishes, his hopes, and his burgeoning feelings for Miss Annabel Glick, played by Logan Hill. Ms. Hill has a lovely voice and is quite moving in her turns with “Times Like This” and her duet with Butler, “Nice.” These two convey a closeness which is quite natural.

(From left) Jacob A. Butler as Harry, John Vessels Jr. as the nun, and Logan Hill as Annabel. (Photo by Rob Slaven / IndyGhostLight.com)

The play is full of marvelous mayhem and has a roster of zany characters to carry it out. At the top of the list is Rita LaPorta, a nearly blind woman who informs her brother, Vinnie, that she accidentally shot and killed her boyfriend, Tony (the uncle), and needs to go to Monte Carlo to find the $6 million in diamonds she and Tony embezzled from her husband, Nicky, after she reads in the paper that Harry has been named as Tony’s heir. Well, that’s just what we are made to believe. There are twists and turns that further fill the plot with chaos and twists.

Diana O’Halloran plays the floozyish Rita to the hilt, giving a lavish accounting to everything Rita thinks and feels. It works well and fits very aptly in the crazy plot. Brett Mutter is a wonderfully frantic Vinnie, having been dragged into the disorder. His frenzied phone call from Monte Carlo to his wife to inform her he won’t be home for dinner (“The Phone Call”) is hilarious as only Mutter can be. Local favorite John Vessels Jr. plays a myriad of characters – from a cheesy night-club emcee to a nun and is memorable in each – as always.

Nathalie Cruz, Hannah Elizabeth Boswell, Thomas J. Cannon, Josh Maldonado, and Sam Arce (as the corpse of Tony) round out the outstanding cast. Save for Arce, all make multiple contributions to the action. There is no way to measure Mr. Arce’s role except to say he is an excellent dead person.

Bottom line: A lot happens very quickly in this show and it is a challenge to keep up at times, but the result is a very funny, very entertaining production. My lone issue would be that although the music produced by Mr. Vos and his small orchestra is great accompaniment to the onstage vocals, the volume level – of the piano especially – often times drowns out the singers’ efforts. As a result, we miss parts of the story as told through song. Perhaps this can be adjusted for the audience’s benefit.

Lucky Stiff continues at ATI’s Studio Theatre in the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel through Feb. 15. You can get information about the schedule and tickets by calling (317) 843-3800 or by logging onto atistage.org.

Read more great play reviews from A Seat on the Aisle at asota.wordpress.com.