The two-act play Spoon Millionaires saw its theatrical premiere at the Veterans Memorial Civic and Convention Center of Lima/Allen County in 2006. It was the first play of the two week Lima Play Fair festival to run all six nights, and did so well that the actors got paid...and they weren't even union!
Chicago Daily Tribune gets dates wrong, misspells "premiere." G.O.P. conspiracy?
Set at the end of the 1980s, Spoon Millionaires—a new comedy by Kirk Hiner and Jim Jividen—is inspired by the prime time soaps of the era. The once mighty Spoon Records is approaching financial ruin, and the founder/president, the Archduke Witherspoon, is well aware of this. The company hasn't produced a chart topping record since the rise of the music video (and the subsequent fall of yacht rock, which was unwittingly popularized by camera unfriendly white dudes), and the Archduke is about to lose his position with the record company he built on his family's fortune.
With a wife who loathes him but loves his money, an estranged son who dies mysteriously in a car accident, a family friend who only comes around to set up drug deals and screw his wife, a possible daughter-in-law who doesn't know the main ingredient in cinnamon, a family doctor who's more concerned with Russian spies than his patients, and a minister who sometimes confuses the teachings of Jesus with the movies of Charles Bronson, the Archduke has resigned himself to his fate.
But then, a familiar stranger with a British accent shows up at his door...
Sample Scenes
The first three scenes of Spoon Millionaires are available for download, along with production notes and character descriptions. If, after reading it, you feel the funny is in line with your kind of funny, feel free to contact the authors to request a full copy.
The video below is taken from the 2006 production at Lima Playfair. It comes from Act II, when Satan (Jon Hodges) and the good Rev. Dirk (Mike Mullen) find some common ground amongst the Witherspoon family members. This is from the original version of Spoon Millionaires, and the dialogue of this scene has changed slightly. However, it does show the pop culture sensibilities of the play, with reference humor that can easily be updated to reflect the time and location of the production.
