Players put on Pajama

Normally, seven and a half cents isn't worth very much. Any Duke student could find at least as much by digging through the cushions of the questionably clean chairs in the Bryan Center. But in Hoof'n'Horn's latest musical, The Pajama Game, the entire story is determined by such a nominal sum. The show develops around the turmoil that overtakes the Sleep-Tite Pajama Factory when the employees demand a raise of seven and a half cents an hour. From this not-typically-enthralling framework, Hoof'n'Horn manages to construct a performance that is both compelling and laugh-out-loud funny.

"This is one of our strongest productions in the last two years at least," said junior Matt Colabrese, the president of Hoof'n'Horn, who plays Hines in the musical.

The show's main roles are Babe (senior Katie Lee) and Sid (junior Ross Goldstein). The characters' turbulent romance is challenged when the factory workers go on strike, and the majority of the performance is dominated by the two singing about the current state of their relationship. Although Sid and Babe's parts provide a solid foundation for the musical, the production's strength arises most obviously from the vitality that the supporting actors instill in their characters. Standout roles include the flamboyantly flirtatious secretary Gladys (freshman Heather Wiese), the comically anal-retentive Hines (Matt Colabrese) and the lovably sleazy Prez (senior Tom Rourke).

More of the show's positive qualities are the result of director Michael Ayers' attempt to adapt a large musical to the limited space of Sheafer Theater.

"[So you have a] huge dance musical, 30 people, 16 locations-in a black box [Sheafer Theater]," Ayers said. "That's the biggest challenge. How do you do that, what the hell do you do?"

Ayers, Trinity '07, addressed the theater's inherent constraints by creating a flexible set that requires the actors to move set pieces around themselves during the actual scenes, eliminating scene changes.

"I wanted to go ahead and show the audience that in this world, that's how it operates-we move 16 modular set pieces around," Ayers said. "And that's their life and that's how they operate. When they come home from work they move the kitchen table."

Although this occasionally results in the actors awkwardly shuffling set pieces around without fully integrating their movements into the rest of the scene, for the most part, the movement of the set proves to be surprisingly entertaining. A definite source of the musical's humor comes from watching the characters tango while swinging unwieldy set pieces. The actors also frequently come into the aisles, interacting with the audience and supplying a refreshing change of tone.