'Let's Pretend We're Famous' at Act II

In the fast-paced musical revue Let’s Pretend We’re Famous, popular local performers Tony Braithwaite and Jennifer Childs satirically impersonate a gaggle of characters. Some are legitimately famed, like George Burns and Gracie Allen, Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, or Jay Leno and Barbara Walters. Childs and Braithwaite do spot-on imitations of them. Later they do a broad exaggeration of lounge performers on a Caribbean cruise ship, mocking their pretentiousness. Musical highlights are Braithwaite’s singing of Noel Coward's advice to a pushy mother, “Don’t Put Your Daughter On the Stage, Mrs. Worthington” — including a rarely-heard final stanza — and Childs’s moving rendition of a second version of “The Glamorous Life” (“Ordinary People”), a song written by Stephen Sondheim for the 1977 movie version of A Little Night Music, which, of course, centers on the private life of a famous actress.

A high-risk segment featured a random audience member pulled onto the stage and taken on a virtual experience of becoming a celebrity. It worked very well at the performance I attended. In another segment, Jen and Tony reeled off a list of names who once were recognizable but who have faded from the public’s memory, thus illustrating the impermanence of fame. One of the names they mentioned was Norman Fell — who, I happen to know, was a Temple University theater major named Norman Feld. He changed his name by one letter to make it easier to pronounce as he went on to “fame” in TV’s Three’s Company.

Braithwaite and Childs are two pros who leave audience members smiling with their charismatic appeal, great comic timing, and fine singing ability. Braithwaite is the artistic director of Act II Playhouse, and Childs holds the same post at 1812 Productions.

Since the topic is being famous, it’s natural to wonder how the show’s creators feel about not achieving international celebrity status. “I’m fine,” Braithwaite told me. “I went to Los Angeles and couldn’t stand the superficiality, the year-round similarity of weather, and needing a car to get everywhere.” He got a call-back for the role of Chandler on Friends but didn’t win the part. (Matthew Perry did.) He has similar thoughts about New York. “I wonder. But I don’t regret.” Here he has family and a close connection with St. Joseph’s Prep, where he graduated, taught, and still directs student productions.

Childs, known as a comedienne, surprisingly wanted to be a Shakespearean. “My dream place was London,” she said. In 1990 she got a six-month visa to go there. She later went to open calls in Manhattan for road companies and for voice-overs. “But at New York auditions, no one talks to each other. In Philly, everyone’s friendly, like family.” In Philadelphia, she’s able to own a home with her husband (Scott Greer) and ten-year-old daughter and “we get to do what we want to do. This is what brings me joy.”

Let’s Pretend We’re Famous, written and performed by Tony Braithwaite and Jennifer Childs. Through January 26, 2014 at the Act II Playhouse, 56 E. Butler Avenue, Ambler, PA. (215) 654-0200 or www.act2.org.

Photo of Braithwaite (left) and Childs (right) by Mark Garvin.