A moose on the loose in an icy, snowy Northern Ontario town is all it takes for hilarity to ensue in Dina Morrone’s appropriately titled slice-of-immigrant-Italian-family-life Moose On The Loose, as laughter-and-love-packed a comedy as I’ve seen in ages.

A punk-rock rendition of the Canadian national anthem (from the movie South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut) clues us in from the get-go to the wackiness about to come, but don’t expect anything close to Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s brand of scabrous humor on the Theatre West stage.

Instead, what playwright Morrone (inspired by the life her immigrant parents forged for themselves 8000 miles from their sunbaked native Calabria) has in store for audiences is PG-rated all the way, but no less outrageously funny than South Park at its filthy best.

Serving as our guide to the mirthful merriment to follow is none other than the titular moose himself (James Lemire sporting a pair of antlers wide enough to do a Vegas showgirl proud and a Northern Ontario accent a Canadian kilometer thick).

Still, amiable as Mr. Moose may be, he’s not precisely what 60ish Giuseppe Tappino (Stuart W. Howard) was expecting to find roaming the streets of Way Up Bay on this wintry morning in 1999, which is why (after a few shots of homemade grappa) he heads off, rifle in hand, to protect hearth and home, leaving behind his devoted if distressed wife Maria (Constance Mellors), his octogenarian in-laws Rodolfo (Richard D. Reich) and Pina (Laura James), his laid-back older son Bruno (Rick Simone-Friedland), and his nerdy younger son Joseph (Nick McDow Musleh), not to mention married daughter Carmela (Deanna Grandy), her decidedly not Italian husband Darryl (Cecil Jennings), and their preteen son Timothy (Darby Winn) to fret and fuss, not the least when Tim relays a phone message in his grandfather’s exact phraseology that “Nonno’s inna da jail.”

Completing Moose On The Loose’s colorful cast of characters is globe-trotting older daughter (and Morrone stand-in) Gina (Erica Piccininni), Bruno’s Indigenous Canadian girlfriend Honabigi Nickaboine (Meg Lin), and the town’s folksy Police Chief (Lemire minus antlers).

Playwright Morrone knows how to keep the laughs coming at a breakneck pace while never forgetting that no matter how wild and crazy things may get (and no matter how many times the play’s Italian-born-and-bred characters may mangle the English language or display old-country attitudes at odds with those of their Canadian-born offspring), they are never anything less than three-dimensional.

Giuseppe may not be able to pronounce Timothy’s name (couldn’t Carmela and Darryl have picked something less un-Italian?), his in-laws-may not get why “Ho” isn’t the best nickname for their grandson’s Native Canadian girlfriend, and none of the older generation may understand marketer Gina’s job (does she spend her days doing nothing but the marketing?), but you never get the feeling that they’re being made fun of.

Instead, Morrone fills the stage with an abbondanza of amore and family warmth, richly rendered characters, and truth-is-stranger-than-fiction events designed to fill hearts as full of love as Theatre West is filled with two-hours of virtually non-stop laughter.

With every single one of Moose On The Loose’s dozen actors delivering the comedic goods and then some, I’ll avoid playing favorites and simply state that under Peter Flood’s effervescent direction, there’s not a weak (or unlovable) link among them. (All right, I will single out Lemire’s Emcee because, after all, how often does an actor get to play a talking moose, but he’s far from the only one scoring chuckles, giggles, and guffaws.)

 Moose On The Loose looks terrific on Jeff G. Rack’s family memorabilia-filled Northern Ontario family home, vividly lit by David B. Johnson (who doubles as sound designer), and Mylette Nora’s costumes aid enormously in transporting us to another time, another place.

Moose On The Loose is produced by Morrone and Benjamin Scuglia. Liv Denari is stage manager and Chelsea Marshall is assistant stage manager. Joe Nassi is gun wrangler and fight coordinator. John Cygan provides voiceover. Philip Sokoloff is publicist. Ari Wojciech takes over the role of Joseph beginning May 12.

Ethnic humor is a tricky thing. In the wrong hands, it can be downright offensive. Such is happily not the case with Dina Morrone’s amore-filled family funfest Moose On The Loose. As Giuseppe himself might put it, “You gonna laugh-a you socks off anna you hearts-a gonna love it-a too.”

Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. West, Los Angeles.
www.theatrewest.org

–Steven Stanley
April 28, 2023
Photos 1 & 3: Carlos R. Hernandez

Tags: Dina Morrone, Los Angeles Theater Review, Theatre West