‘Funny Little Thing Called Love’ set in Manitowoc

MANITOWOC, Wis. (WFRV) – St. John’s Players community theater will present the Jones Hope Wooten comedy “Funny Little Thing Called Love” starting next weekend at the Franciscan Music Center for Music Education and Performance (theater of the former Silver Lake College of the Holy Family) at 6751 Calumet Ave.

Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 6; 2 p.m. Aug. 7; 7:30 p.m. Aug. 12-13; and 2 p.m. Aug. 14. Tickets will be sold at the door.

Jones Hope Wooten is the name for the writing team of Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten. Jones Hope Wooten specializes in comedies with a Southern flavor that a popular with community theater audiences.

According to the team’s website: In “Funny Little Thing Called Love,” four tales take the audience on an around-the-globe journey of unexpected and comical twists and turns:

+ A slick, successful used-car-selling Romeo in Dallas, Texas, believes he’s answering Cupid’s call, only to realize too late that he’s wandered into a life-changing trap set by three fed-up Juliets.

+ On an island getaway, The Hallelujah Girls, a group of fun-loving gals from Georgia, say aloha to their wild sides as they accidentally crash a Hawaiian honeymoon in progress. These five women – and Waikiki – will never be the same.

+ In a rooftop London bistro, sparks fly when two strangers surprisingly start to connect, only to be thwarted by a hyperactive American tourist who’s determined to be the center of attention, and the unpredictable antics of an ancient waitress who wields a wicked sousaphone.

+ In Manhattan, a man tries to battle his way out of a mid-life crisis with an ill-advised and elaborate marriage proposal. Unfortunately, it all goes wildly off-track when his caterer passes out, a tap-dancing singing telegram girl breaks into sobs rather than song, his ex-wife saunters in wearing nothing but a bathrobe and a smile, and a cowering superhero inches nervously across his twelfth-floor window ledge.

This is the St. John’s Players second year of performing at the center.

The troupe produced its first show in summer 2005 – “Our Town.” Since then, the group has offered a variety of plays for the Manitowoc community during summer so as not to take away from the long-established The Masquers, in which many of its players perform. After a hiatus of a few years, the group began offering shows again with last summer’s “The Hallelujah Girls.”

The group states it strives “to provide a theatrical experience to those seeking opportunities to develop their individual talents and abilities; all while having fun building community, fellowship and mutual respect for participants.”