By Charlene Baldridge | SDUN Theater Critic 
Get ready for loud and brash and scatological. Those three words pretty much define “The Great American Trailer Park Musical,” a 2005 off-Broadway musical playing through Dec. 11 at the San Diego Repertory Theatre.
Hugely popular in regional theaters this season, the piece has music and lyrics by David Nehls and a book by Betsy Kelso. It is a spoof on trailer trash residents of Armadillo Arms, a Florida trailer park where
Betty, Pickles and Linoleum (Melinda Gilb, Kailey O’Donnell and Leigh Scarritt) hold forth like a Greek chorus that collects rays by the dry swimming pool.
Betty is pragmatic; the unmarried Pickles is pregnant; and Linoleum, so named because her mother gave birth on the kitchen floor, awaits her death row boyfriend’s execution. Everything awful is fodder for comedy.
In another part of the park, the marriage of patient Norbert (David Kirk Grant) and agoraphobic Jeannie (Courtney Corey) is on its last legs. Norbert has bought Ice Capades tickets to celebrate their 20th anniversary, but it is doubtful Jeannie can muster the courage to get beyond the first step in front of their trailer, which she hasn’t left since their infant son was abducted at the shopping mall soon after their wedding.
There’s a change in the weather when an exotic dancer named Pippi (Jill Van Velzer) moves into Armadillo Arms, attracting Norbert’s eye. His floral tributes grow in size daily and so does the amount of time he spends with Pippi, who’s on the lam from her mean and violent boyfriend, Duke (David McBean). Just about the time a huge storm hits, so does Duke, toting a huge, loaded pistol. Mayhem follows, along with more songs, of course.
Twelve songs of the country and blues type grace the production, which is set in Starke, North Florida. All six company members are excellent singers and if Tom Jones’s mics make them sound edgy and unbalanced at times, it goes with the territory. Musicians are music director Anthony Smith on piano, Jim Mooney on guitar, Kevin Cooper on bass and Danny King on percussion.
Visually the show is a study in gaudiness, with choreography by Javier Velasco, scenic design by Ian Wallace, costumes by Alina Bokovikova, lighting by Lonnie Rafael Alcaraz and wig designs by Louticia Grier and Peter Herman.
The show fearlessly employs the F-word and much more, so check your inner prude at the door and have a rip-roaring romp at Armadillo Arms.
Performed in 90 minutes without interval, “The Great American Trailer Park Musical” continues at 7 p.m. selected Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, and 2 p.m. Sundays through Dec. 11 at the Lyceum Theatre, 79 Horton Plaza, downtown San Diego, $37-$57, www.sdrep.org or (619) 544-1000.
