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'Quilters' hokey, but still worthwhile

Something about "Quilters," the musical currently being performed by the Arizona Repertory Theatre, works. It's not the script, or the lyrics to the songs, or even the whole concept of the play, reminiscent of an elementary school production of "Little House on the Prairie." But there's something in the way the actors light up the stage that makes it seem as if they really weren't just playing out a hokey musical about quilts.

"Quilters" is a patchwork of anecdotes about pioneer women and how quilts thread their lives together as women living in the great dust bowl called the West. The musical is broken into about 20 blocks, or sections of a quilt, each of which has its own story, and when combined, address nearly every aspect of a woman's life.

There isn't much in the way of props in "Quilters," save the quilts and a few ladders, so everything becomes something else at some point or another, including the actors. They switch names and genders and accents and characters so often its hard to know who was originally supposed to be who, but it doesn't matter because they're so darn good. In one scene, the actors might be kids, in the next, they might be old maids talking about their 14th child's birth, and in the next, some of them may even be playing men. And every time, it's just as good as it was before.

Not only can they act, they can sing, too. While the lyrics may not be all that intriguing, the cast of seven women sing them out beautifully, while the on-stage musicians offer energetic accompaniment.

The script may be a little on the corny side at times, but it does have its high points. One short vignette about Cornelia, the corn-cob doll, has the actors wielding all sorts of puppets that represent the different ingredients used in the making of the doll, such as a turkey and a sunflower, which get ripped off the puppets in what can only be described as devilish glee.

Another monologue talks about how the girl's sister is always making quilts with Sunbonnet Sue all over them in different poses. Well, she just got so sick of Sunbonnet Sue that she made a quilt of her own, The Demise of Sunbonnet Sue.

But what really holds Quilters together and keeps it from becoming just another infantile musical about covered wagons (Git along, little dogies!) is the amazing acting. Jeanne Pollard, Amy Bowman, Betty Craig, Brooke Davis, Kimberly Goldman, Traci Hartley, and Marlene Cristina Montes rightfully deserve all that applause at the end.

You gotta hand it to them, they take an otherwise lame script and turn it into something better (I have to say it), much like how even the tiniest scraps of fabric can work together to become a colorful quilt.