Nostalgic Comedy Comes to Lakeville Arts Center

If you’ve ever snuck a chunk of baking chocolate from the cupboard expecting it to taste good, or experimented with plywood bicycle ramps on the front sidewalk, or can recall with fondness playing with Lawn Jarts, then you’ll feel right at home during the Lakeville Art Center’s production of The Wonderbread Years this weekend.

The show is billed as the highlight of the Art Center’s 2010-2011 Performing Arts Series and is sponsored by the Lakeville Rotary Club.

Penned by Pat Hazell, one of the original writers for NBC’s “Seinfeld” show, The Wonder Bread Years takes a comedic journey into the nostalgia of growing up with particular focus on the baby boomer generation. Walking a fine line between stand-up comedy and theatrical performance, the show weaves through a laughter-inducing mine field of moments most everyone will remember, or relate to.

“It’s a baby boomer pilgrimage back to the days when our lives were simpler,” says Hazell. “It’s contagious. It stirs up memories of cereal box prizes and bad Halloween costumes. It’s really about the common thread that runs through the fabric of our lives, and that’s growing up.”

Hazell originally wrote the play as a PBS special and it has since gone on to national touring performances. The Lakeville performance will feature veteran Twin City actor and director, David Mann, who was responsible for the show’s record-breaking 13-month run at the Chanhassen Dinner Theater in 2007-2008.

Mann, who has written and starred in five one-man shows of his own and has also performed at the Guthrie and Minnesota Fringe Festival, says that while baby boomers may relate more closely with the material in the show, audiences of all ages relate to The Wonder Bread Years because of the themes involved.

“It’s jokes about growing up and the funny experiences you have as a kid,” says Mann. “That’s something we all have in common and that’s the beauty of it. These are jokes that Pat has crafted, but they apply so broadly, I’m really telling my story.”

Bicycles with banana seats, must-have toys, SPAM, sugar rushes, blue popsicles, and riding without seat belts in the way-back of the station wagon are all fair game during the 90-minute coming-of-age romp. Though the show is filled with hilarious one-liners and extended comedic riffs, it also explores where the wonder of childhood goes as we all grow up. When was the last time you thought ants were cool?

Hazell, who sourced the material for The Wonder Bread Years from years of stand-up, says he was prompted to write the script while reviewing childhood family slides. “The details of those years kept coming back to me and I realized that all of us have had a lot of the same common experiences growing up, especially in the Midwest,” he says.

“A lot of people have had the same experiences,” Hazell continues. “Whether it was a bad Halloween costume or discovering a new insect, there’s a collective American consciousness that surrounds growing up with the same three TV stations that were available for a period of time. It’s a lot more difficult for that to happen now.”

Hazell has been thrilled with the response to the play and also with Mann’s characterization and performances of his material. “To be able to go to a theater and laugh for ninety minutes is, I think, a great contrast to the doom and gloom in the news nowadays,” he says. “It’s (the play) escapism in its purist form.”

You can see The Wonder Bread Years this Friday and Saturday evening at the Lakeville Arts Center. Performances begin at 7:30 p.m. each evening and tickets are still available for both performances. Tickets are $20.00 in advance and are available through the Arts Center or online. Tickets are also available at the door for $25.00. For complete information, contact the at 952-985-4640. The Arts Center is located in downtown Lakeville at 20965 Holyoke Ave.