Fruitcake Follies
Christmas celebrations come in many diverse expressions. One of the more unique is the Fruitcake Follies; A silly, fun, gay, original, and often amusing cabaret starring five talented entertainers and a few surprise guests. This wacky show is now in its 13th year at the theatre in the basement of the Mexican restaurant, Casita del Campo in Silverlake.
The cast consists of Master of Ceremonies, the dapper James Gray who, in the course of the evening gets stoned on “special” brownies. He had a pleasant singing voice and has put together this show. Next host or hostess is the tallest drag I have ever seen in the persona known as “Momma”, a well-known fixture at many events in and around West Hollywood.
On the distaff side we have Dena Drotar, a shapely blonde who is known as a Monroe impersonator or so I’m told. Sandy Fox is a short and funny sidekick who sounds a lot like Megan Mullally. Then there is Cindy Abrams, a self described “no- talent” who spends the evening crocheting and then passing out knitted yamakas complete with braids. Rounding out this group is Leslie Carrara of Sesame Street with he adorable sock puppet Lolly along with a beaver and other such. Lolly was really the hit of the evening.
The last remaining cast member is Eric Seppala, a very funny guy who sang “Dreidel” for us dressed as a dreidel. He joined the others in a lively rendition of the “Jingle Bells” and “Sleigh Ride”. All dressed as elves. Other musical highlights included Momma sing “Silverbells” to the words ”Silverlake”, “Santa Baby”, and “Santa Lost a how”. The cleverest touch in the show was when the showed clips of favorite Christmas movies, “It’s a Wonderful Life”, “White Christmas”, and “Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer”, to which were added snippets of the Fruitcake cast. The Fruitcake Follies is a sellout every year and in July they present Firecracker Follies to celebrate July 4th.