Great American Melodrama's The Fish Whisperer deserves loud lauding 

When the fish stop biting, a professional fish whisperer comes a-knocking in the Great American Melodrama's latest musical romp set in Shewauga, a small fictional town in the non-fictional state of Wisconsin.

The Fish Whisperer marks New York City-based actor Austen Horne's stage debut at the Melodrama where she takes on the role of Hannah, a town outsider who offers to rid Shewauga of its fishing crisis with a transcendent dance ritual for a $10,000 fee.

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• Photos Courtesy Of The Great American Melodrama
• FISHY BUSINESS The quirky residents of Shewauga, Wisconsin, consider whether or not to trust a town outsider, Hannah (Austen Horne, left, in her debut role at the Great American Melodrama), who offers to solve the area's recent fishing crisis for a $10,000 fee, in The Fish Whisperer.

Some residents are expectedly skeptical of the self-described fish whisperer, while others are eager to resolve the town's poisson plague as fast as possible at any cost. What's so great about Horne's performance is she also keeps the audience guessing whether or not the whole thing's a hoax.

She's persuasive and infectiously cheerful to the extent that suggests Shewauga is getting duped, but eccentric enough to put doubters at ease as if they're in the hands of a sage—albeit, unconventional—master, like Yoda or Willy Wonka.

Near the start of the show, Hannah reminded me of another fictional outsider and entrepreneur—Sylvester McMonkey McBean, aka the Fix-It-Up Chappie, in Dr. Seuss' The Sneetches and Other Stories. He's the bloke in the bowler hat who gets rich with a tattoo trend scheme that both exploits the Sneetches and teaches them a valuable lesson about discrimination and herd mentality.

Regardless of my predictions about Hannah's intentions, I was on her side early on because I felt no matter which way this show goes, she's probably going to be responsible for Shewauga's fishing community learning a crucial moral by the final curtain.

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• Photos Courtesy Of The Great American Melodrama
• ON KEY Pianist Andy Hudson is the Great American Melodrama's featured accompanist during the musical The Fish Whisperer, starring Julia Mae Abrams, Mike Fiore, and others.

The town's mayor, Amos (played by memorable Melodrama regular Mike Fiore), immediately assumes Hannah is a con artist upon meeting her. He doesn't buy into Hannah's expensive fish whispering or dance ritual proposal. While the hot topic in town after Hannah's arrival is whether or not to trust her, Amos' college-age daughter, Karen (Julia Mae Abrams), is worried about a different fishing-related problem.

It's revealed that Karen's mother died about a year prior to the show's opening, and Amos, who used to fish regularly, hasn't used a fishing rod, bait, or tackle since his wife's passing. Karen is afraid her father hasn't grieved properly and considers staying home with him a while longer rather than head off to college in the coming months as she'd previously planned.

Like Karen, many of the show's characters are confronted with some kind of personal sacrifice they're forced to consider. To raise the $10,000 needed to employ Hannah as a fish whisperer, some town residents decide to try funding the initiative themselves by giving up certain things.

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• Photos Courtesy Of The Great American Melodrama
• NOT TAKING THE BAIT The cast of The Great American Melodrama's production of The Fish Whisperer includes Casiena Raether, Toby Tropper, Jeffrey Laughrun, and Dillon Giles (left to right).

The two co-owners of a local barbecue business, Benjamin (Dillon Giles) and Bobby (Jeffrey Laughrun), for example, consider selling their favorite grill in order to donate its proceeds to the cause. The duo spell out their plight during the song "Grill of My Dreams," one of several catchy numbers featured in the musical, along with "They Ain't Bitin'," "Bring Those Fishes Back," "The Shewauga Jingle," and other quirky songs from composers Ron Barnett and Dan Wessels and lyricists Robin Share and Scott Guy (who also wrote the play).

Thanks to the Melodrama's consistently stellar casting, exuberant dance choreography, and live musical accompaniment via pianist Andy Hudson, this local rendition of The Fish Whisperer is definitely one to catch. Δ

Whisper or shout at Calendar Editor Caleb Wiseblood at [email protected].