Photo courtesy The Apple Sisters.
The Apple Sisters is one of those shows that you could never accurately pitch to your friend to get them to go with you. It’s part variety, it’s part sketch, it’s music and comedy and satire and character and, well, funny. It’s really, really funny in fact.
If you don’t know anything going into your first Apple Sisters show, that’s just fine (they do a superb job of clearing up any confusions for the new kids right at the top), but it does help to have an idea of just what to expect. In short, the year is 1943 and the sisters are the singing and dancing hosts of a popular, if campy, radio show. The girls do all the normal things you might expect: gossip, talk about their love life, and generally fill the role of milkshake counter sweethearts. Well, sort of. Perhaps it’s more accurate to say that they try to do all those things, but end up divulging secrets, scheming, riling each other up, and generally causing pandemonium wherever they go. They’re a toned down, prettied up version of the Three Stooges, with five times the writing and at least as much talent.
The shows themselves are crafted fresh every month, but contain the same character through lines that have made the ladies so successful. There’s the closet lesbian, the slutty one, and the girl who can’t get enough of God, all bumbling their way through a 1940’s mess of their own creation. And make no mistake, their shows do get messy. With a flair for the slapstick and absolutely absurd (think a man dressed up as a burlap tapeworm, “inadvertently” launching tapeworm-like boiled spaghetti pieces into the wings with each move), these Apple girls aren’t afraid to fall far from the conventional comedy tree. And with more than enough caramel-sweet overtones (the time period dresses, the great voices and non-stop giggling), it’s impossible not to enjoy their shows.
The Apple Sisters themselves are Kimmy Gatewood, Rebekka Jonhson, and Sarah Lowe, a slew of longtime New York performers who have taken up a recent residency in the City of Angels. Between them, they have a ton of credits at some great comedy rooms in New York (UCBTNY, The PIT) and have been selling out audiences here at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre on Franklin, the de facto home for next-level comedy in this city. With charisma, talent, comedy, and looks to spare, we should all be so fortunate to see them once. Even your skeptical friend.
The Apple Sisters can be found online here, and will be doing their monthly UCBTLA show on March 31st.
