Music: 'Trailer Park' has it all, but there's nothing here to see

There's a line of dialogue early in "The Great American Trailer Park Musical" that sizes up a fella as having a fondness for "foreign beers and cheese that smells like urine."

Ah yes, it's going to be one of those evenings.

Minneapolis Musical Theatre has been here before, sort of.

In 2007, the gritty little troupe staged "Jerry Springer, the Opera," a foulmouthed piffle that spoofed the TV voyeur. Director Steven Meerdink likely thought he was moving into similar digs with "Trailer Park," which opened Friday at Illusion Theater in Minneapolis. Not that "Springer" was any prize, but this trashy homage to the beautiful people who populate mobile-home parks just does not "git 'er done."

Meerdink has chosen to go way over the top in a production that feels like bad vaudeville for the grits-and-taters set. God strike me dead for suggesting there's a reason to play it straight, but composer David Nehls and writer Betsy Kelso do propose the germ of a twisted story beneath their banal thicket of stupidity.

The question is whether that plot can be supported by an arch point of view, or whether it's necessary to have actors stomp and mug and wink for laughs. Either way, this is a deep-fried turkey.

Kim Kivens, a talented musical-comedy actor, does have a nice sense of the absurd contours of her character -- a woman who hasn't set foot outside her trailer since suffering a trauma 20 years ago. This frustrates her husband (Tom Karki), who stumbles into the arms of a stripper (Maria Stukey) who just moved in over yonder. She has one of those bodies, topped with a haystack of ringlets, that comes at you in myriad ways. Her ex-boyfriend (a flailing, screaming Joseph Bombard) arrives and, when he's not sniffing permanent markers, he's threatening everyone in the park. Again, could this cat be played with subtlety? Yes. Is it worth the effort? Eh.

Three wigged-up matrons act as narrators. Lori Maxwell has a big voice and an easy manner as the leader of this group. Christine Karki begs mercilessly for attention.

Nehls' music settles for three-chord hooks and an occasional soulful ballad. MMT's band, arranged under a canopy at the back of the stage, keeps the pace brisk -- even in production numbers that exist only as show filler. Given limited resources, Joshua Stevens does well with his costumes and set design.

MMT knows its audience, and past efforts in this vein have been good fun -- "Bat Boy" and "Zombie Prom" come to mind. Some of the faithful were laughing hard Friday night, but really. Hitch this buggy to the back bumper and lay rubber.

Graydon Royce • 612-673-7299