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Too Many Cooks

Full-Length Play, Comedy  /  2w, 6m

"Brilliantly written" - CHCD Radio, Ontario

"A hilarious comedy... a huge success." - Simcoe Reformer
It’s 1932 in Niagara Falls, Canada, where the rum-running business is at its peak. In the aftermath of the Crash, Irving Bubbalowe and his daughter, Honey, have risked everything they have to open a new gourmet restaurant. When their star - the renowned singing chef François LaPlouffe - fails to appear, tonight’s grand opening is suddenly placed in jeopardy.

  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    2w, 6m
  • Duration
    Duration
    120 minutes (2 hours)
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Farce
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult, Teen (Age 14 - 18)

Details

Summary

It’s 1932 in Niagara Falls, Canada, where the rum-running business is at its peak.  In the aftermath of the Crash, Irving Bubbalowe and his daughter, Honey, have risked everything they have to open a new gourmet restaurant. When their star - the renowned singing chef François LaPlouffe - fails to appear, tonight’s grand opening is suddenly placed in jeopardy.  However, when unemployed chef Frank Plunkett wanders in looking for work, Honey persuades him to masquerade as the missing LaPlouffe. The beleaguered Bubbalowe, meanwhile, also has to contend with Chicago gangster Alfonse Feghetti and his sidekick who have come looking for an illegal shipment of booze that, unbeknownst to Bubbalowe, has found its way into his basement. In addition, Bubbalowe has to keep at bay the hot-blooded Immigration officer Veronica Snook, on the trail of the vanished chef, as well as a suspicious teetotalling Mountie who is ready to arrest Bubbalowe for both murder and bootlegging. Madness ensues and Bubbalowe and the others create a hornet’s nest of fabricated stories and identities as they try valiantly to save the restaurant - and themselves - from both the gangsters and the law.

History
Too Many Cooks was first presented at at the Lighthouse Festival in Port Dover, Ontario, on July 23rd, 2003. It was directed by Robert More.
Keywords

IRVING BUBBALOWE - affable fellow in his mid-forties to mid-fifties, proprietor of “Château Bubbalowe”
MICKEY MCCALL - scruffy-looking man in his forties, delivery man for Dominion Warehouse
HONEY BUBBALOWE - attractive woman in her late twenties, Irving’s daughter
FRANK PLUNKETT - pleasant-looking man in his thirties, unemployed chef
ALFONSE “NOODLES” FEGHETTI - Chicago mob boss, à la Al Capone, mid-to-late forties
SHIRLEY - large, imposing mob enforcer type, mid-to-late thirties, Al’s right-hand man
VERONICA SNOOK - officious-looking woman in her forties, investigator for Canadian Immigration
HAMILTON X. EFFING - Dudley Do-Right type, in his mid-thirties to forties, Constable for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police

  • Time Period 1930s
  • Setting

    Niagara Falls, Ontario, during Prohibition

  • Features Period Costumes
  • Additional Features Not Applicable
  • Duration 120 minutes (2 hours)
  • Cautions
    • Alcohol
    • Gun Shots

Media

"Too Many Cooks was the most entertaining play I have ever seen! I've never laughed so hard at a play... brilliantly written and performed." - CHCD Radio, Ontario

"Too Many Cooks is a hilarious comedy... a huge success." - Simcoe Reformer

"Those who enjoy comedic farce will giggle non-stop" - Port Dover Maple Leaf

Music

  • Musical Style N/A (Not a musical)

Licensing & Materials

  • Minimum Fee: $110 per performance

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Authors

Marcia Kash

Marcia Kash has 11 shows to her credit, including For This Moment Alone, Discovering Elvis and five plays with longtime collaborator Douglas E. Hughes. Their first play, Who’s Under Where?, has been translated into six languages and is currently enjoying its first Polish lang ...
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Douglas E. Hughes

As well as the five plays he’s written with his cohort Marcia Kash, Douglas E. Hughes has written two short plays for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Debussy: At Sea and The Talking Cure; a one-act comedy, Taken For Granted; three screenplays, Hearing Trouble, Star Struck and ...

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