Miss Beryl Swiver presents
Miss Beryl Swiver in

Thanks a Lot: My Gratitusical!

One Woman’s Musical Journey to Herself and Back.
Starring Miss Beryl Swiver (from her own idea)

Book by Richard Levinson and Rebecca Larsen
Music and Lyrics by Richard Levinson
Additional material by Jenelle Riley
Featuring Rebecca Larsen as Miss Beryl Swiver
Directed by Kiff Scholl

OCT. 16 & 30, NOV. 6 & 13, 2016
SUNDAYS @ 7pm

Tickets: $10
Buy Tickets

You're welcome. Beryl Swiver returns to the small stage for a limited run of her award-winning Hollywood Fringe hit. Be appalled. It's amazing.

FRINGE AWARDS!

WINNER - The ENCORE! Producers' Award 2016
WINNER - Pick of the Fringe
NOMINATED - A Little New Music Award for Outstanding Songwriting

Crew

Producer Emeritus - Brian Wallis 
Stage Manager - Travis Snyder-Eaton 
Photo & Graphic Design - Kiff Scholl

  - Sacred Fools Company Member

Reviews

Excerpts from Hollywood Fringe audience reviews:

Filthy, sly, and hilarious. A perfect hour. MUST SEE.

This show is a HOOT!

Raunchy, offensive, and hilarious. Fantastic music. You’ll love Beryl Swiver for being a terrible human being.

Great show. Brilliantly performed.

Oh my fucking god this show is hilarious! I really needed this in my life.

See this! It’s glorious!

Rebecca Larsen is absolute perfection, the songs are hilarious and it’s such a fun time.

SEE THIS! Funny, smart, absurd and super entertaining!

Go. It’s exactly what you hope it is. Rebecca Larsen is great. Richard Levinson is great. The songs are funny and expertly delivered. You’ll laugh the whole time.

The greatest one woman show I have ever seen!

Read more audience reviews from the Hollywood Fringe run!

FringeReview

Beryl Swiver is a fictional chanteuse, played by actress and singer Rebecca Larsen. “Thanks A Lot” is Beryl’s tribute to herself; and the story of her journey from obscurity in anecdote and song.

Beryl is a fully-rounded comic character, best compared to the Paul Reubens creation Pee Wee Herman or the Barry Humphries grotesque Dame Edna Everage; heightened, but rooted in truth. Part-monster and part coquette, she is the sort of performer who gives performers a bad name; self-obsessed and delusional, blind to her faults and without a concern for anybody but herself.

Larsen manages to look ageless as Beryl, who claims at one point to be twenty-two but is more likely a painstakingly preserved forty-something.

She opens with the title song, welcoming the audience and establishing the tone, the audience join in with the charade that we are seeing a much-loved performer in a sophisticated cabaret setting. Big hair and a blue sequined gown suggest that Beryl would be at home in Vegas, or the the late eighties.

The clever (and often dirty) songs are by Richard Levinson, who provides keyboard accompaniment and is the perfect foil and straight man to Beryl’s discount diva. The songs are more obviously funny than the creation who sings them but there is no disconnect. Larsen sings the songs straight, and very well, allowing the comedy of the songs to shine through unhindered.

The stories between the songs (Credited to Larsen and Levinson with additional material by Jenelle Riley) give a potted history of Beryl’s passage to showbiz (via rehab and a rest home) and handily land us at another song opportunity. The depth of the characterization is impressive; the back story might not quite add up but you believe that a real person is lying to you. Larsen seems not to judge Swiver, but rather lets her creation’s blithe lack of conscience speak for itself. Larsen is completely at ease in her persona and the sold-out house was putty in her hands.

Credit should be paid to the invisible hand of director Kiff Scholl, it’s impossible to tell where his input starts or finishes but the whole show feels note-perfect. I hope that if the show gets further life, it might take the next step and be in the sort of cabaret room that it is currently just pretending to be in.

There are are very many one-woman shows on offer this year. This is definitely one of the best. I highly recommend it.

--Guy Picot
© 2016 FringeReview

From the Sacred Fools run:

Gia on the Move

RECOMMENDED... In 12 - plus a "we didn’t prepare an encore" songs – Rebecca Larsen as upwardly mobile, Minelli-esque Miss Beryl Swiver, in primo-camp and bedazzled sarcasm, sings her salacious best while relating a hysterically heartfelt life in classy, comedic cabaret vignettes. You will never experience love and dating the same, again.

Read the full review at the link below.

--Tracey Paleo
© 2016 Gia on the Move

Back to Top