Old style enjoyable in ‘The Lost Virginity Tour’ from Best Medicine Rep

If you want The Golden Girls, the traditional TV sitcom about 4 ladies of a sure age who’re nonetheless roaring with life, you’ll respect The Lost Virginity Tour. The comedy, written by Cricket Daniel and directed by John Morogiello, is now being staged by Best Medicine Rep and enjoying on the Writer’s Center in Bethesda, Maryland. 

The Lost Virginity Tour is the story of 4 associates from the Happy Trails Senior Resort who determine to take a highway journey collectively to the locations the place every of them misplaced their virginity. 

The solid is fabulous — in an over-the-top, sharp-witted, playing-it-to-the-hilt means. Liz Weber because the Oprah-homily-slinging Rita; Crystal Henry Arful-Addoh because the delicate Elaine; Tracy Dibon Coffey because the four-times married Italian-American Jersey woman, Viola; and Jill Vanderweit because the prim and correct, by no means married, Southern belle Kitty. They hit each comedian line, regardless of how trite, with verve. 

These stellar actresses give spirit to a play that appears trapped in time, a time when it was rule-breaking to current older ladies joking about intercourse and growing older. One small second, once they first appeared of their matching road-trip T-shirts, demonstrated how dated this work felt. There is a few dialogue in regards to the locations they’re visiting: “We’re not the Rolling Stones,” quipped Rita, earlier than Viola retorts, “Yeah, we’re younger.” This will get laughs due to the sharp-edged supply, but it surely landed on me like one of many many retreads on this play.

On her web site, the playwright states that considered one of her goals is to be in a sitcom author’s room. She definitely appears to be aiming at that right here in The Lost Virginity Tour.

This comedy does have its extra severe turns. Monologues from our Jersey woman (Dibon Coffey) and our Southern belle (Vanderweit) are fantastically performed in deep, dramatic moments. Heartfelt pathos reveals their hidden secrets and techniques. But these tragedies are shortly spun by means of, all is nice once more, and they’re off to the subsequent cease on their tour, one other fast reduce, a scene break that felt as very similar to the beat for a tv industrial break because it did like a play’s considerate transition to the subsequent scene.

One needs the depth of the writing matched the depth of the proficient solid’s appearing. Unfortunately, the play culminates in a sequence of well-worn strains, “there are no accidents… there are no regrets…this road trip isn’t about our past but about discovering our futures…” 

The directing, by John Morogiello, is usually frenetic. These girls are not often nonetheless, they usually punch by means of their punch strains. One needs for the pacing to decelerate, to interrupt the sitcom mode, to interrupt the fourth wall even, and let the remembrance of tragedy deepen the current. Best Medicine Rep focuses on comedy, and I might be wanting to see extra productions from this Maryland-based theater group, which has introduced collectively this proficient solid. This explicit script alternative, nonetheless, didn’t work for me. 

On the opposite hand, the sound design, additionally by Morogiello, hits all the correct notes with upbeat on-the-road pop tunes working onerous to attach the scenes as the chums journey from North Carolina to New Jersey to Indiana to Colorado. The set and projection design by Douglas Becker works seamlessly. The costume design by Elizabeth Kemmerer, notably particulars just like the outsized silver pocketbook for Viola and the group T-shirts emblazoned with “The Lost Virginity Tour,” works effectively and provides to the enjoyable. 

I’m not towards old school comedy and enjoyable, and this manufacturing of The Lost Virginity Tour has its moments – however most of all, it has its solid spinning gold out of straw. 

Running Time:  One hour and 45 minutes with a 15-minute intermission.

The Lost Virginity Tour performs by means of March 29, 2026 (performances on Friday and Saturday at 7:30 PM; matinees on Saturday and Sunday at 3:00 PM), introduced by Best Medicine Rep Theater Company, acting at The Writer’s Center, 4508 Walsh St, Bethesda, MD. Purchase tickets ($31.95 common, $21.95 senior/scholar) online, on the door, or by contacting the Box Office at BestMedicineRep@gmail.com.

The Lost Virginity Tour
A comedy by Cricket Daniel
Directed by John Morogiello