DEKALB, ILL, April 7, 2023 – If, when coming home from work, you opened your briefcase and happened to find one the equivalent of one million dollars in used bills, what would you do? For Henry Perkins, mild-mannered, middle-aged accountant we get to find the answer in Stage Coach Players’ (SCP) summer season opening comedy, Funny Money. The British farce opens on April 27, 2023 and runs two weekends through May 7th. It is sponsored by Bill White’s C.A.R. Hospital and Jerry and Annette Johns.
Funny Money, written by Ray Cooney, is directed by Bernie Schuneman who last directed Lend Me A Tenor in 2018 with co-director Jan Booth. The farce begins when Perkins returns home from work. He has forgotten that it is not only his birthday, but he and his wife Jean will be having guests, their best friends, Vic and Betty Johnson over for dinner. Henry, however, is acting strange and starts making plans for a trip out of the country for him and Jean. The trip is to happen that very evening.
Jean is finally able to find out why Henry is acting so peculiarly. On his way home from work on the tube, Henry has mistakenly picked up the wrong briefcase, and instead of finding his gloves, scarf, and cheese and chutney sandwich, he’s found nearly a million dollars in used bills. After counting the money several times in the loo of a pub, Henry’s come to the conclusion that the money is money from illicit gains. He realizes that the owner of money will be looking for it and he tries desperately to get Jean to leave the country with him.
That’s when the real fun begins. Vic and Betty arrive. A cop, who has tailed Henry from the pub follows. Bill, a cabbie whom Henry has called to take the Perkins’ to the airport comes to the house and then, a second cop arrives to give Jean some awful news about her husband. Cooney’s farces combine traditional British bawdiness with structural complication, as characters leap to assumptions, are forced to pretend to be people who they are not, and often talk at cross-purposes. And Funny Money does not disappoint!
The cast includes Galen Malick as Henry Perkins. Galen is making his Stage Coach Players’ debut. Wendy Tritt (The Red Velvet Cake War – 2021) plays Jean Perkins. Steve Challgren who last was on stage for Stage Coach Players in 2022’s Clue: Onstage plays Vic Johnson. Elenia Dokos (Betty Johnson) returns to Stage Coach Players after last performing as Audrey II’s voice in Little Shop of Horrors in 2018. The rest of the cast is Greg Anderson as Sergeant Slater, Chris Porterfield as Sergeant Davenport, Barb Kolb as Bill and Will McJunkin as Passerby.
Ray Cooney has been a staple in British comedy for many years. Schuneman counts himself as a fan. He said it was one of things that drew him to script and the desire to direct Funny Money. “I have loved the shows of his that we’ve (SCP) done in the past and this script didn’t disappoint!” Schuneman directed Cooney’s farce, It Runs In the Family in 2008 and acted in Not Now, Darling in 2012.
Anderson said that Funny Money was a hilarious British comedy. Tritt echoed his statement saying, “People will literally be on the floor laughing. It’s fun, fast-paced and hilarious.”
Funny Money premiered in 1994 at the Churchill Theatre, Bromley, London followed by a very successful two-year run in the West End. Cooney both directed the play and played the role of Henry Perkins. He has had more than twenty comedies produced and in 2005 was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in recognition of his services to drama.
Performances for Funny Money are April 27 – 29, 2023 and May 5 – 6, 2023 with a curtain time of 7:30 p.m. along with Sunday matinees on April 30 and May 7, 2023, with a curtain time of 2:00. Tickets are $15 each or $13 for seniors and children aged 13 and under. Tickets are currently on sale through the box office phone at 815-758-1940. To purchase tickets, visit our online website at www.stagecoachplayers.com. You can also call the SCP box office at 815-758-1940. The box office will open Sunday, April 23, 2023.
Thank you for being understanding as SCP navigates COVID-19 guidelines. For this production, masks are suggested but not required. If the state of Illinois guidelines change, our guidelines will change also. Thank you for helping us keep our patrons, cast and crew safe.
