Doublewide, Texas is booming, having gone from four doublewides to 17 in just four years.
The Adobe Theater presented the comedy “Doublewide, Texas” by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten in 2018 to sold-out houses. Its sequel “Honky Tonk Hissy Fit” arrives Friday, March 18, just in time for pandemic-weary audiences, director Georgia Athearn has said.
This time, an Austin-based company is way too interested in Doublewide. Mayor Joveeta Crumpler is the only person suspicious enough to sound the alarm, but no one is listening. Big Ethel Satterwhite has her hands full trying to teach town police chief Baby Crumpler how to dance dirty for a countywide competition. Joveeta’s mother, Caprice, is too involved in her local celebrity “career” to sense the growing threat or to realize that grumpy old Haywood Sloggett is growing increasingly attracted to her.
Caprice is also keen to stop her neighbor and rival Big Ethel from visiting her estate – the Stagger Inn bar.
Director Athearn stopped short of calling the characters Texas stereotypes.
“These are not stereotypes; they are real people,” she said.
“There is matriarch Caprice Crumpler. She’s a woman in her 60s trying to be a much younger woman than she is. She’s loud, she’s lively, she likes to drink beer.
Caprice is the mayor’s mother, Joveeta, whose double-width serves as both caravan and town hall. Georgia Dean Rudd is the proud owner of Bronco Betty’s Buffeteria, where she specializes in healthy meals sometimes avoided by her elderly clientele.
“This town is filled with hearts, with people with hearts,” Athearn said. “My significant other said, ‘Why are you making fun of Texans?’ and I said, ‘I’m not; they’re people.
Beginning July 22, the Adobe will stage “The Sweet Delilah Swim Club,” another “Doublewide” sequel from the same authors.
“We want to bring people back (to the theater) with a high,” Athearn said.
