Don’t miss Sympathy Jones, The New Secret Agent Musical
By Sharon Reichert
The Leduc Drama Society has put together an entertaining, family‐friendly musical to warm you up on a
chilly February evening! Sympathy Jones, The New Secret Agent Musical, is set in the 1960s and carries
all the fun and innocence of those bygone days.
Sympathy, played by Erin Hutchinson, is a secretary for The Agency but she wants to be so much more!
She longs for danger, excitement and the chance to prove she can stop the bad guys!
The problem is, she is so good at her current job that her boss Roger Pinkerton, played by David
Newton, has no intention of letting her go as his assistant.
Then one day, Agent Henry Greene, played by Andrew Dupres, leaves his briefcase on Sympathy’s desk,
providing her with the opportunity to ‘borrow’ the file on a case that has the whole agency in a tizzy!
Sympathy is quickly on the case, leaving Henry to play catch up.
Hutchinson does a great job bringing Sympathy Jones to life, with enthusiasm, naivety, energy,
determination and a great sense of humour.
It was so much fun to watch Dupres take on the role of newbie agent Henry, who was a little tonguetied,
a LOT awkward and completely smitten with Sympathy!
As Sympathy and Henry are trying to work out their sudden unexpected partnership, the evil Kitty Hawk,
portrayed by Michelle Karasinski, is wreaking havoc on Washington, DC, and threatening even the
President of the United States with her plan to stop time!
Highlights of the show are many and include Kitty singing to her minions to remind them that You Don’t
Cross Kitty, without facing dire and immediate consequences! Karasinski did a brilliant job portraying the
vengeful Kitty, who was understandably hurt when her husband, played by Victor Howard, replaced her
with a younger model! Curtis Johnson was great as Kitty’s sidekick Tick Tock, in turns a scientific genius,
a frustrated co‐conspirator and a lovestruck boy toy.
Kudos to Dave Froland as Agent Nick Steel, whose injuries force him onto crutches and into the
background of the Kitty case. Froland learned to drag himself around on the crutches from the earliest
rehearsals, according to director Cyndi Wagner, which couldn’t have been easy, showing his dedication
to the character and the role. Can’t move on without mentioning Carie Fargie‐Scott, who played Caprice
Nova, tech dress designer extraordinaire, winning the hearts of the audience AND Agent Steel! Her
scenes were definitely among the highlights for this writer!
Hats off, also, to the hard working and talented ensemble! Multiple characters, MANY costume changes,
lots of fights they could never win and several recurring death scenes (some within mere seconds!)
didn’t phase them at all!
Overall, this was an entertaining, fun musical and well worth making your way to Mclab Theatre for the
Performing Arts to catch one of the three remaining shows, Feb. 7, 8 and 9.