RATS: The Musical - THE review

The Blackboard!

Break Out the Dildos and Silly String!
Bakersfield theater troupe crosses the line — and chops it into a million pieces

By GREG GOODSELL
greggoodsell@hotmail.com

The Royal Association of Thespians, or RATS for short, is the closest thing Bakersfield has to a sure thing when it comes to local theater.

Members of the troupe are young … none is over 30 years of age, and their production values are uniformly meager. The closest thing they have approaching costumes are matching T-shirts that have been through the wash a couple times, if they’ve been washed at all. The props in a typical RATS production are usually flesh-colored protuberances that fall under the euphemism of “marital aids.” Those limitations aside, RATS is the still one of the few guarantees of a good time at a local theater audiences have these days. With the stated aim of entertaining crowds at all costs, RATS usually succeeds, and knees-to-the-chest bursts of laughter are not all uncommon.

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