Prohibition to Visit Pudding

Persistence paid off for a Leverett House senior and an alum yesterday when the Hasty Pudding Theatrical Club selected their play--submitted this year and last--for its spring production.

This February, the Club--sporting its traditional all-male cast--will perform a revised version of "Whiskey Business," written by Robert E. Corcillo '89 and Edward R. Hennessey '88. The Club turned down the original script in the final round of judging last year.

"It'll be the best pudding show ever," Sarah A. Laskin '89, a judge and co-producer of the show, said. "We really liked the characters and thought they would play well."

Although both Corcillo and Hennessey had been members of the Club's performing company throughout their undergraduate years, Edward K. Stimpson '89, club president, said, "who they were and what their affiliation was had nothing to do with the script."

Featuring such characters as "Don L'Anmarie" and "Fanny L. Hall," "Whiskey Business" is "a musical drag show based on the in's and out's of mob violence in the '20's," Corcillo said last night.

Corcillo said he and Hennessy got the idea for the show when "we were sitting in a bar in Bermuda and Ted said, `why don't we do one about prohibition?'"

"We like drinking," Hennessy added quickly.

Stimpson said the judges--five club officers and two producers--began screening the scripts this spring, and had cut the field to three by August.

"In this last week-and-a-half, the five of us officers and the two producers came to a consensus," Stimpson said, adding that Corcillo, an officer of the Club, voluntary disqualified himself from the judging.

"We would like to stress that all the scripts in the final round were excellent and it was a tough choice," Laskin said.

The club will hold auditions for the show in December.