by Randal Sumner
11/01/2003
I like musicals, I don’t know much about them as an American
genre, I just like them. They’re a little stupid, there a
little whimsical, its just fun, don’t think about a bunch
of sailors singing, “There’s nothing like a Dame,”
just go with it. That pretty much sums my feelings about fly-fishing,
lighten up, make a cast, it’s just for fun.
My pal Mark knows all the words to Oklahoma, he was in the musical
at his high school, and he will sing at the drop of a wine glass.
This fall Mark, Chis and I went on our annual fishing trip to the
Idaho wilderness and were camping around bear and deer hunters.
There not really singers but darn good listeners, around a roaring
campfire Mark tried to teach me all the words and melody to Oklahoma.
It got me thinking about a Fly Fishing musical. Ok gang lets put
on a show!
I guess you have to start with a plot, the story line should be
simple so lets go with Boy meets Girl, then Boy would rather go
fishing than deal with Girl. The universal conflict. Lets name the
boy Ray and the Girl Patty. Ray and Patty
I like it.
We could start act one with the wives of the fishermen, dressed
in multi-colored bath robes, slippers and cold cream masks singing
and dancing to,” We are the fishermen’s wives “
in a munchkin accent. Think about it.
This act ends with Patty’s solo of “ What about my issues”,
heart rendering and bittersweet.
This is followed by the singers dressed in silver trout outfits
belting out “ Don’t put a hook in my mouth”, can’t
you just picture the stage lights reflecting off the silver lame’
fish suits as the trout swim dance around? Dazzling.
As for the big male number we would have the guys dressed in sequined
chest waders casting fly lines across the stage past each other,
I think green and red lines, maybe three casters on each side of
the stage. Keeping all the lines in the air at the same time and
singing “ Lookin’ for a lunker.” This act will
take some practice for actors not intimately familiar with fly-casting.
As the lines fall at the end of this number Ray enters pushed on
stage by the trout in a golden drift boat, to sing his solo”
Got No Worries when your fishin’.”In.the final act we
would have the big wedding event, with Ray and Patty singing the
duet “Baby just wear your hip waders”, under crossed
fly rods.
Of course there are some details, like the music itself that I would
need help with but nothing is easy in life, fly-fishing or showbiz:
but the trick is to make look like it is.
