We had originally planned to take the next couple of weeks off for the holidays. But, then we watched the recent Designing Women play and ended up with a special sweet treat for the podcast. Consider this your holiday gift from us!
We’ll start this week with a sneak peek of our reactions and we’ll be back next week with what we’re calling “The Full Sweet Tea & TV Treatment.”
Come on, let’s get into it! (OH! Since we recorded our episode, it's been announced that The Arkansas Reparatory Theater - or The Rep - will present their production of the play January 6-February 6, 2022. Visit their site for more information!)
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Transcript
Nikki: Hey, y'all.
Nikki: Welcome to the Sweet Tea and TV podcast.
Salina: We're doing something special this week.
Salina: And next, we're taking a little holiday break to be with our families, but we didn't want to leave you hanging.
Nikki: That's right.
Nikki: We've recorded a review of the recent.
Nikki: Designing Women play performed at Theater Squared.
Nikki: In Arkansas throughout the fall.
Nikki: It's no longer available, but there's a.
Nikki: Chance it could be available again at some point, so we didn't want to miss it.
Nikki: Hi, friends.
Nikki: Nikki from the future here.
Nikki: Since we recorded this episode, the Arkansas Repertory Theater announced their production of the Designing Women play will be on stage January 18 through February 6, 2022.
Nikki: Visit www.therep.org.
Nikki: That's therep.org for more information.
Nikki: Now back to the show.
Salina: So, first up this week, we're each going to do a rapid fire review of the play as a teaser, and then next week, we'll give it the full sweet tea and TV treatment.
Speaker D: OOH.
Nikki: Rapid fire reviews.
Nikki: How about Selena goes first?
Salina: What a treat to see LBT.
Salina: In the wild.
Salina: Allah away from network TV, free to show us that she's not afraid of politics, the F word, or even a little controversy.
Salina: She's not lost her edge wit nor sharp tongue.
Salina: But we did lose Charlene somehow, who is only there for a fraction of the show.
Salina: We get two new faces anthony's cousin Cleo and Charlene's baby sister, Haley, both welcome additions.
Salina: For me, Cleo brings the LGBTQ and African American perspective, while Haley, a closeted feminist, is our local evangelical who finds her voice just in time for the standing ovation.
Salina: We found some southern references buckhead chickfila, and stuckey's pecan logs.
Salina: But, uhoh, where do we put our southern accents and our Mary Joe?
Nikki: The conflict was a bit of a.
Salina: Stretch, but I'm willing to bend.
Salina: And before it was all over, I found myself eating up the resolution we never really needed, because at the end of the day, LBT.
Salina: Knows how to write women showcase the special bonds we forge and pull on the heartstrings.
Salina: I am so here for it.
Salina: And now, nikki.
Nikki: Bye bye, big hair.
Nikki: So long shoulder pads.
Nikki: In Theater Squared's, recent play Designing Women entered the 21st century, and not quietly, they kicked in the dang door.
Nikki: We got LBT's unvarnished take on politics.
Nikki: COVID-19, women's rights, LGBTQ issues, and more.
Nikki: My two minute review will be a high low.
Nikki: High something I loved then, something I didn't.
Nikki: Then something I loved first.
Nikki: A high.
Nikki: The gang's all here.
Nikki: We had Julia, Suzanne, Charlene, a bonus charlene, her cousin Haley, or hattie if you're miss Suzanne Mary Joe, and a darn good stand in for Anthony and his cousin Cleo, who was such a high point of the play.
Nikki: Plus, we got a new love interest for Julia.
Nikki: Win Dollarhide now a low for me.
Nikki: Charlene.
Nikki: Where was Charlene?
Nikki: And more importantly, who was Charlene?
Nikki: That character did not resonate with me at all.
Nikki: A high.
Nikki: The content.
Nikki: If there was any question about whether LBT.
Nikki: Is still a world class writer, it has been resolved.
Nikki: She's the goat.
Nikki: All of the fan mail voicemail about.
Nikki: Julius blog nearly every one of Cleo's lines.
Nikki: I especially love that diatribe on adjectives at the beginning.
Nikki: The era of Anything Goes, if you have one of those is over so much good.
Nikki: I also appreciated the relevance of the content.
Nikki: Every reference was spot on.
Nikki: I have an honorable mention two part low, the accents and the form of a play.
Nikki: First, the accents were a little all over the place.
Nikki: Carmen Cusack nailed Julia at points I would have thought it was Dixie Carter if I'd had my eyes closed, but others were more off base and a little distracting.
Nikki: Also, a play was not my favorite way to consume an updated take on the ladies.
Nikki: That's totally a personal preference, though, and I'll still take it.
Nikki: I have an honorable mention.
Nikki: High win, dollar high.
Nikki: Just the whole package, from the actor.
Nikki: R word Duffy to the character itself.
Nikki: He took the good parts of Reese.
Nikki: Watson, the romantic parts, but he felt so much less misogynistic.
Nikki: I was heart eyes over him in general.
Nikki: I'm not sure what LBT Wanted to accomplish with this show.
Nikki: I don't know if her aim was to change conservative people's minds on issues or if she was preaching to the choir.
Nikki: The latter is honestly how it felt to me, which I think resonates if you're on that side of things but may have further distanced you if you're on the other side.
Nikki: Either way, I think it tracks with what we know and love of the characters and brought them into a time that.
Nikki: Resonates with younger viewers.
Nikki: I give it five stuckey's pecan logs.
Nikki All right.
Nikki: Come back next week for the full review.
Salina: We'll see you around the holiday bender.
Nikki: Bye.