There ' s Something Funny Going on Here!
Pintello Comedy Theater: Serving Up Nostalgia in 2025!
by Whitney Pintello
Many theater companies plan a season in advance, embracing a theme or era. At Pintello Comedy Theater, we don’ t always plan a whole year in advance. We are definitely a family that loves to jump when an idea strikes and have let this year’ s shows lead us, and just now realize it’ s a season of nostalgia.
We started off the year with the wildly popular 80’ s homage“ Mystic Pizza: The Musical”. Audiences truly enjoyed the plot of the Julia Roberts film infused with a montage of 80’ s hits. An incredible undertaking by our guest directors Maddison Alipaz and Michael Frelier. Because it was a new show, it was a fresh opportunity for actors to flesh out brand new roles they’ ve never seen performed.
“ Wally’ s Café” was our spring comedy, following three unlikely friends working at a diner, watching them age, grow apart and together again from the 1940’ s to the 1980’ s. The setting and mindset of each era was such a treat to explore. We have a great senior following and love hearing how shows like this touch them. Our own Charley Gilmore was Wally, a part played by his dad Chuck, 40 years ago here in Gilroy at Center Stage. Another sweet bit of nostalgia.
Right now, we’ re cooking up laughs with“ The Kitchen Witches”, a show we produced over 14 years ago, and have loved revisiting our favorite moments while mounting the newly revised script with two new actors to our stage, Christy Wait and Ginger Kaelin, along with two local theater legends, Rosalind Farotte and Jayson Stebbins.
As we look toward the end of the year, we are preparing for our first holiday show in many years,“ 1940’ s Radio Hour” by Walton Jones. Set on Christmas Eve in NYC, 1942, this show is a gem for its choice of humor, music and sentimental glow it leaves long after the show ends.
I think this season of shows chose us because we strive to bring some levity, some laughs, and some sweet nostalgia when our world is changing so wildly. Join the Pintello family for an evening we know will leave you feeling lighter. As we always say,“ There’ s something funny going on here!”
Whitney Pintello is a fine artist specializing in scenic painting for theaters, as well as a mixed media instructor and artist working on canvas, glass and murals. Pintello Comedy Theater welcomes you to join us for laughs!
www. PintelloComedy. com # theressomethingfunnygoingonhere
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