Pair Give ‘Chuck and Di’ Royal Treatment

If the rock ‘n’ roll British invasion was a case of the English outdoing the Americans at their own game, then Jim Grady and Gaille Heidemann’s “Chuck and Di: The Tabloid Musical” provides a modest bit of payback.

A savage satire of the royal family that would make the editors of Punch magazine blush, Grady and Heidemann’s show is also a swiftly paced crib of Gilbert and Sullivan, mixed with campy drag comedy out of Monty Python.

The catch? Grady and Heidemann are Americans and might even find a bigger audience for their piece across the Pond than they have in the show’s premiere production at Long Beach Playhouse’s Studio Theatre.

The fact that they are Yanks might explain one significant difference between this and what a Brit version of a musical spoof on the royals would look like: Though Di might be the object of traditionalist scorn in the old country--she did, after all, have the temerity as one who married into the Windsors to tell the prince where to get off--she’s the slightly addled heroine of “Chuck and Di.”

Diane Vincent plays her with a clueless innocence that draws us in. This Di may think that 2 plus 2 equals 5, but she’s our rooting interest here in a deliciously mad and corrupt world.

It’s everyone around her who’s really bonkers. Chuck (Dan Sachoff, delivering the perfect cartoonish image of the Prince of Wales) is a stunted, full-of-himself jerk, more interested in carrying on with his teddy bear than having a conversation with his wife.

Lyricist Heidemann uses stronger words than that in the table-setting, G&S-styled; number “This Is the Fairy Tale”: “Our real life Cinderella / Arrived in a carriage of glass / To wed her Royal fella /She’ll find, poor lass, what’s gold is brass / That broken vows, alas, will give the lady gas! / Prince Charming’s really cold and crass / And a horrible ass!”

It’s a little harsh, maybe, but not for the tabloid version of the disastrous marriage. And harsh is so much more fun, especially as narrated by London Titillater editor Voratia G. Blabbsalott (Michael Prohaska).

Like almost all the drag versions of the monstrous women in this show--as vivaciously staged by co-directors and choreographers Peggy Holmes and Joseph Malone--Blabbsalott is an out-and-out broad of the old school.

Holmes’ men in dresses really have a fierce competition here to see who can out-do, out-intimidate, out-stomp the other broad. (Points go to the brief appearances of Rick Felkins’ Nanny Frightbody and Garrison Thompson’s nutty Queen Mum, but we have to bow to Jim Blanchette’s hilariously scarifying Queen.)

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That’s the pleasure of the show--you can watch it for the drag contest, or for how completely the Di fairy tale-to-nightmare is told, or for how 37 numbers are crammed in 95 intermission-less minutes, or for how the show never gets droopy in its satirical digs because the makers are always coming up with a fresh, tabloidish angle.

Like this one: Bruce MacGregor’s vivid Camilla Parker-Bowles may be Chuck’s lover on the side, but she’s also an alien secret agent beamed down from a UFO to wreak havoc on Earth.

And so it goes in a musical that’s over just after it seems to have begun. Grady supports the speedy pace and light tone with punchy piano accompaniment, while costumer Anthony Padilla and set designer Michael Hruska work hard to come up with a campy look to match the tabloid outrageousness.

Grady and Heidemann may be better--at least for now--being in Long Beach rather than a higher-profile spot such as West Los Angeles’ Odyssey Theatre. If the local British Consulate gets wind of this, who knows what could happen?

* “Chuck and Di: The Tabloid Musical!,” Long Beach Playhouse Studio Theatre, 5021 E. Anaheim St. Fridays-Saturdays, 8 p.m.; April 13 and 20, 2 p.m. Ends April 26. (562) 494-1616. $15. Running time: 1 hour, 35 minutes.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

“Chuck and Di: The Tabloid Musical!,”

Diane:Vincent Di

Dan Sachoff: Chuck

Jim Blanchette: Queen

Garrison Thompson: Queen Mum

Michael Prohaska: Voratia G. Blabbsalott

Bruce MacGregor: Camilla/Schoolgirl

Jim Ward: The “King”/Archbishop/Schoolgirl/Parker-Bowles/Williwank/Glamis/Dr. Fillerup

Rom Watson: Lord Mountbatten/Schoolgirl/Williwank Assistant/Franklin

Rick Felkins: Nanny Frightbody/Headmistress/Fergie/Kanga

A Long Beach Playhouse Studio Theatre production of Jim Grady’s and Gaille Heidemann’s musical. Directed and choreographed by Peggy Holmes and Joseph Malone. Set: Michael Hruska. Costumes: Anthony Padilla. Lights: Matt Schlicker.