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Triple Espresso

Check out this neo-vaudevillian trio.

Saturday May 05, 2001.     By Dawn Arnold

Theater Feed

The Mercury Theatre 3745 N. Southport 773-325-1700

Buzz Maxwell: a dry-witted magician with a prison record who dejectedly exults in the patheticness of his dime-store tricks at a Kiwanis Club luncheon.

Bobby Bean: a rubber-faced comedian who is something of a mix between a Ken doll and a used car salesman.

And Hugh Butternut: a lovable, maniacally jolly lounge singer trying to drown his fear of failure in the sounds of his piano, Liberace-style.

This motley crew is Triple Espresso, a neo-vaudevillian trio that is performing in an open run at the Mercury Theatre in Chicago after sold-out stints in San Diego and Minneapolis. Their two-hour act tells the hilarious and at times touching story of, as Bob Stromberg alias Butternut said, "a failed comedy team who made it right to the door of success and were left on the stoop." They are re-united at the coffeehouse called Triple Espresso, where Butternut is celebrating 25 years as the house pianist.

With a mix of song, dance, mime and magic, the three men tell how they met and struggled for fame and fortune while pursuing the affections of a woman named Cassandra, whom they met on The Dating Game. The three - Stromberg as Butternut, Michael Pearce Donley as Bobby and Bill Arnold as Buzz - co-wrote the show as an amalgam of their own individual talents and best monologues. All three are performance fixtures in the Christian community, with extensive experience performing for youth groups, corporations, prisoners and other audiences. Arnold is a trained (and, contrary to Buzz's malaise, quite impressive) magician and stand-up comic, Stromberg is a musician and mime and Donley is a songwriter and musician. While their background is in Christian- oriented performance, there is nothing overtly religious about Triple Espresso except its squeaky clean (but still irreverent) humor.

"Our task was to write the funniest play in the world," said Stromberg, who went to North Park College in Chicago in the '70s. "It doesn't have a foul word or any sexual innuendo - people might hear that and say 'Why would I want to see that?' But it has a really broad appeal. We have elementary school kids laughing and their parents and grandparents laughing."

Stromberg said the group would ideally like to franchise the show, with auditions in numerous cities so that Triple Espresso can be running simulatneously with different casts all over the country. They envision it as a little different in every city, with juggling or break-dancing or whatever added to showcase the individual talents of the performers.

"The idea is to become a mini-Vaudevillian review," said Stromberg. "It's a special thing - we'll have to follow it and see where it leads."

Tickets for Triple Espresso are $29.50 for Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday evenings, $36.50 Friday evenings and Sunday matinees and $38.50 Saturdays. Saturday matinees at 1 p.m. cost $12.25 for kids and $24.50 for adults. Shows are at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, 1, 5 and 8:30 p.m. Saturdays and 2 and 6 p.m. Sundays. Call 773-325-1700.

By Kari Lydersen