Key Westers love to drift through the southernmost island’s rich trove of historic nostalgia.
Nowhere is that more evident than in the recent resurrection of “Conch Republic, The Musical,” an audience-interactive show featuring nine players and an original score at the Little Room Jazz Club, 821 Duval St.
“Tonight we are back,” composer and show creator Gayla Morgan announced triumphantly to a packed house at the tiny, cozy venue on opening night April 18.
Brought back from its last run at the San Carlos Institute Theater in 2013, this lively “Conch” reboot tells true-life tales of indictments, arrests and warrants for drug smuggling offenses in the 1980s that were flying all over the place like a Key West breeze.
In this musical production whose content is loosely based on the book by Monnie O. King, we see Key West’s then-mayor Dennis Wardlow (hilariously portrayed by Michael Aaglinas as the bespectacled official) struggling to find an answer for the group of local hotel and bar owners who are distraught when federal agents and the DEA descend upon the tiny island town in a sweeping law enforcement narcotics dragnet.
The Keys’ main artery, US 1, is shut down by federal law enforcement agents. All the way up north to Miami, they say. Cars are being searched. Citizens’ rights are being violated. But the feds are in for a little resistance.
Actor Billy Cartledge, who portrays “Bubba” in the show, brandishes a gun as he wails, “I’m gonna make a little trouble,” weaving throughout the audience.
Other tales that are told through songs like “The Key West Way” go back as far as the time when rumors swirled that the Navy had plans to turn the city into an immigrant refugee camp. And fancy food? No way.
“We captured giant sea turtles and turned them into soup,” remembers player Camille Toler as the Cuban breadmaker Maria.
The cast of “Conch Republic, the Musical,” clad entirely in black, recounts in song the days of Jimmy Buffett’s ‘80s Margaritaville and a time when locals conceived the idea of seceding completely from the United States, rebranding and redistricting the island as a sovereign entity in its own right as the Conch Republic. In the story, the idea of a battle forms against the government, a kind of Key West coup, but the mayor just doesn’t have the heart (or stomach) for it.
Additional players in this show are Don Bearden (Steve), Trey Forsyth (Skeeter Dryer) and Annie Miners as Virgina Panico.
The production is a long-time labor of love, said Morgan on opening night. She runs the local Seaglass Theatrical company that produced the show this time around. “My co-writer (King) and I designed this story to be told with a smaller cast and in a smaller venue.”
The Little Room Jazz Club donated the performance space. Additional music and lyrics are contributed by Bobby Greene.
“Conch Republic, the Musical: A Decade of Music and Mayhem” is now celebrating its 10th anniversary. In this rendition we can say it’s a fun, frothy cocktail of everything a story about the island should be — brash, bold and campy with a sideshow of history and histrionics.
While these funny — sometimes brazenly unlawful — tales of Key West have been told in countless literary and journalistic forms over the past decades, “Conch Republic” is no doubt a must-see musical version.
Like conch fritters, it’s a juicy bite.
Tickets for the performance can be purchased by visiting conchrepublic-themusical.com. (running Tuesdays through Sundays at 5:30 p.m. through April 30.) The interactive show is playing at the Little Room Jazz Club, 821 Duval St., Key West.
