Camp Nimrod for Girls
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Martha Watterson covers all the possibilities in her “Horse gets girl, horse loses girl, horse gets girl back” musical Camp Nimrod for Girls, now in its sprightly world premiere at Live Bait. Watterson–who attended a riding camp named Nimrod in her youth–is a first-time playwright, and her book gets a strong assist from Mary Scruggs and Live Bait artistic director Sharon Evans. Scruggs also penned the often witty lyrics, while Robert Steel composed the pleasant if unassuming score.
Shy, awkward Jane is the new kid in the Catbird cabin, where the more experienced girls tell her that camp is about “learning to do practical things for when we grow up, like painting rocks and shellacking corn.” Reeling from her parents’ divorce, Jane is fresh bait for the bitchy trio who plan to do more with their summer than just arts and crafts, taunting her with visions of makeovers and make-out parties with the boys across the lake. But once Jane meets Butterscotch, she’s torn between the brooding, sensitive horse and Randy, the big kahuna at the boys’ camp.
Like Live Bait’s delightfully offbeat summer romance last year, Sharon Evans’s Blind Tasting, Camp Nimrod for Girls combines hopeful effervescence with a hint of autumnal wistfulness. At a time when most new musicals seem to be either bloated spectacles or tired pop-culture pastiches, it’s refreshing to see someone take the camp out of the musical by sending the musical to camp. Nimrod could use a few more laps around the track to tighten up the book and add some variety to the songs, but this is one dark horse that has a shot.
