Laughing at Florida: Comedy duo Compton & Bennett roasts snowbirds, 'Florida Man' and more
Snowbirds. Attorney John Morgan. Home owners associations. Swampland real-estate scams. And that darn Florida Man getting into trouble (yet again).
Nothing is safe from comedy duo Compton & Bennett in “A Cracker at the Ritz.”
Rick Compton and Betsy Bennett poke fun at all those things and more in their hit show, which opened in January and was recently extended for another three months at the Center for Performing Arts Bonita Springs.
The satirical show is hosted by Bennett’s sassy, flamboyant Earlene, aka “The Queen of the Florida Crackers.”
“Earlene kind of comes from a bunch of women that you see on the internet,” Bennett says, dropping for a moment into Earlene’s over-the-top Southern twang. “There’s a few that are just the sweetest, nicest people in the world ― but don’t cross’em (laughs).”
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'A Cracker at the Ritz': Revised and revamped
The revue has been around since its Southwest Florida debut in 2007, but a lot has changed since then.
The show is almost entirely new except for a few reworked numbers from the original, including the title song and the ever-popular “Snowbird” ― sung to the tune of “Day-O” with a crowd-pleasing chorus: “It's first-degree ... second-degree ... third-degree ... burns. Snowbird come and he won't go home."
The Naples-based Compton & Bennett credit the revamped show to their New York producer, Douglas Gray, who helped them develop and publish their nationally touring hit “Assisted Living: The Musical."
“Douglas Gray changed us as writers,” Compton says. “The show you see now is the result of New York City workshops and working with our publishers and producer and some managers and learning.”
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Now they have a better understanding of their craft then they did before, he says, including how to shape and focus a show.
“I don’t want to say that we were hacks then,” he adds and laughs, “because the fact is we’re probably hacks now.”
The show focuses mostly on the character Earlene, who Bennett also based on a friend and other Florida “crackers” (slang for Florida natives whose families have lived here for generations, often starting as cowboys who cracked their whips while herding cattle).
“It’s a really interesting mix,” Bennett says. “Crackers, you know, are not dirt farmers. They may have been at one point, but now they own a heck of a lot.
“And they sent their kids to Rollins. And Stetson. And all the big universities. And Earlene is product of all that. So she knows what she’s doing.”
Compton ― billed as Ricardo in the show ― mostly plays piano, sings along and serves as straight man to Bennett's center-stage Earline. That’s on purpose, he says. She’s a much better performer.
“Betsy is so strong at creating characters and acting,” he says.
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Together, they wrote the show and its satirical songs skewering life in Florida and getting us to laugh at ourselves.
“Florida Man,” for example, is based on all those weird, wild and often hilarious “Florida Man” news headlines, with less-than-upstanding citizens doing things like jet-skiing in a swimming pool, groping a Disney princess or jumping the fence to pet a zoo tiger. All sung to the tune of “Stand By Your Man” and all based on real-life incidents.
“Just reduce it to iambic pentameter and rhymes,” Compton says, “and it’s written itself.”
Home owners associations − and their habit of issuing fines for just about everything − were another easy target, he says. “Everybody loves to hate them. So in a sense, they’re low-hanging fruit.”
Other topics include flea markets, immigrants falling in love, the proper way to pronounce Micanopy (hint: it’s NOT “my can of pee”), water pollution, attorney John Morgan (“For my wallet”) and even skin cancer (with Ricardo singing about visits to the dermatologist in “I Don’t Get Brown Much Anymore” − to the tune of the jazz standard “Don't Get Around Much Anymore").
Compton & Bennett pack the house in Bonita Springs
“A Cracker at the Ritz” was a big hit during snowbird season at the Center for Performing Arts Bonita Springs, and most shows sold out weeks in advance. Now that the snowbirds are gone, ticket sales are slowing but the shows are still largely full for their regular performances every other Tuesday in the 200-seat Moe Auditorium.
So what’s next for “A Cracker at the Ritz”? Compton & Bennett plan to take it on a Florida tour later this summer.
That’s why they designed the show the way they did ― simple sets and costumes with just two actors, so it’s easy to load everything into one trunk, get in their Subaru Outback Onyx and drive to the next gig.
As for their Bonita show, Compton isn’t sure if it’ll get extended again, but they’d love to keep doing it there twice a month ― or perhaps take it to other Southwest Florida venues.
“We could play every other Tuesday night there, forever,” Compton says. “I think it could become a tradition.”
Connect with this reporter: Charles Runnells is an arts and entertainment reporter for The News-Press and the Naples Daily News. Email him at crunnells@gannett.com or connect on Facebook (facebook.com/charles.runnells.7), Twitter (@charlesrunnells) and Instagram (@crunnells1). You can also call at 239-335-0368.
If you go
What: Compton & Bennett’s “A Cracker at the Ritz”
When: 7 p.m. every other Tuesday through the end of June. Upcoming dates are April 25; May 2, 16 and 30; and June 13 and 27.
Where: The Moe Auditorium at the Center for Performing Arts Bonita Springs, 10150 Bonita Beach Road, Bonita Springs.
Tickets: $30
Info: 495-8989 or artcenterbonita.org
This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: Compton & Bennett get laughs from HOAs, snowbirds and Florida Man
