Theater Review - Blue horizon

Reel Entertainment gives Norwegian Blue an American spin

How does a play go from being named after a parrot to being named after a cheese? English playwright John Baden-Nuttall’s 1993 farce Norwegian Blue takes its title from a kind of color and evokes the deceased pet bird, “pining for the fiords,” in Monty Python’s classic “dead parrot” sketch.

But in seeking to stage the play for local audiences, Marietta’s Reel Entertainment decided to offer a revised, American version of the British farce, and have changed the title to the cheesy Danish Blue to distinguish the two versions. Having received the playwright’s permission to adapt the English references to American ones, Reel Entertainment founders Kevin McIntosh, Jeff Combs and Jerry Taylor direct and produce the show and play all of Danish Blue’s roles: four men and two women scheming to get their hands on an old man’s fortune.

McIntosh, Combs and Taylor established Reel Entertainment as a videography, editing and live production company, with Danish Blue as the group’s first live stage play. But despite having chosen an adapted script for their debut production, Reel Entertainment’s founders were first drawn together not by the Old World but by the New Frontier, all being veteran performers of Six Flags’ live Wild West Show.

Danish Blue plays through April 13 at the Cobb Playhouse and Studio, 2060 Lower Roswell Road, Suite 300, Marietta. $12. Fri.-Sat. at 8 p.m. 770-565-3995.??