‘Don’t Touch That Dial’ but go see the play’

VENICE – You can win more than Ginzu knives in the Pinkerton Theatre at Venice Theatre.

With another fabulous set by Tim Wisgerhof, five characters are hosting the ultimate game show, “Don’t Touch That Dial.”

It was written and directed by Roger Bean, who seems to have overdosed on all those game shows, sit-coms and detective shows that filled all the 12-inch screens for the game shows in the early days of television.

The cast of “Don’t Touch That Dial” features Ross Boehringer as Ross, the game show host, plus Eddie Edenfeld as Eddie, Alyssa Goudy as Alyssa and Jennifer Szakoloczy as Jenn.

The cast of “Don’t Touch That Dial” features Ross Boehringer as Ross, the game show host, plus Eddie Edenfeld as Eddie, Alyssa Goudy as Alyssa and Jennifer Szakoloczy as Jenn.

These three do a lot of costume changing as the story moves along with no laugh track needed.

Not one of these actors was even alive in the earliest days of the old TV shows that inspired this show but each one took his or her role and ran away with it.

By day, Alysssa Goudy is the theater’s special events/production manager. She is a gifted comedic actress with a voice that spans several ranges and styles.

She is outlandish humor on steroids but then that character trait applies to each of the four performers who are on stage and in the audience for nearly every minute of the show.

Boehringer, Venice Theatre’s costume shop manager, was not only very funny but also likely the person who designed the silvery gray sharkskin suit he wore as the gameshow host, although he was not the costume designer for this production.

Anthony Garofalo filled the “screen” literally. He is big but especially big as a comedian who can make the most of a trench coat, a sparkly silver dress and other outrageous garments.

Jennifer Szakoloczy is the smallest in stature but as big in the talent department as anyone in the cast. Her facial expressions, voice and body language would steal the show except that these four all have that ability.

This play is based on those early shows were taken from radio — mysteries, music and news and, of course, game shows, soap operas plus shows made for television like Captain Video, Howdy Doody, Dragnet, Maverick and many westerns.

Game shows were even more popular on television where one could see the Ginsu knives that went home with winners or — did they go home with the losers?

The big prize at the “Don’t Touch That Dial” game show is really BIG! There were four contenders for the jackpot the night I was in the audience.

I was not one of them, although I am old enough to have watched “I Love Lucy,” the “Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Dragnet,” “The Lone Ranger,” “Stop the Music,” “Mama,” “What’s My Line,” “Hallmark Hall of Fame,” “Lassie,” “Gunsmoke,” “The Price is Right,” “Perry Mason,” “Maverick,” Steve Allen,” “77 Sunset Strip,” and the “Twilight Zone,” to name a few of the early shows.

All these shows had memorable theme music and Bean worked that into this production with a “really big prize” for the winner — the person who identified the most theme music from the old shows.

Whenever someone had the right answer, that person received a big sticker to paste on his or her clothing.

Four people in the audience each had collected seven or eight of those “stunning” stickers. When the answer was close but not spot on, contestants received half stickers.

For this show, the bar is in the Pinkerton Theatre and orders are taken before the show to be delivered either then and or during “quasi” intermission. Assorted handheld noisemakers are loaned to everyone in the audience to use whenever someone answers a theme music title correctly.

In addition to identifying theme music, audience contestants had to come up with names of characters in some of the old shows or perhaps sing an old commercial.

There were even questions about Lost Lyrics, the lyrics to theme songs that few ever heard.

Did I mention sight gags? There were plenty of those, too.

“Don’t Touch That Dial” continues in the Pinkerton Theatre in the main building of Venice Theatre, through Feb. 9. Tickets are $15-$37, according to age, plus $3 restoration fee.

Feel free to add more as costs keep climbing to restore what was there before the arrival of Hurricane Ian.

For tickets, call the theater at 941-488-1115 or visit venicetheatre.org to purchase tickets or to donate to make the theater whole again.

Venice Theatre is the largest community theatre in the United States on a per capita basis and number two after the Omaha Playhouse, which is in a city of more than 450,000 people.

The Pinkerton Theatre is inside the main building at 140 W. Tampa Avenue on the island in downtown Venice.