by Molly Gilmore
Published on page 4 of the Fall/Winter #37 Print Edition of Oly Arts
If you’ve been in Olympia long, chances are that when you hear the word “vaudeville,” you think first of Elizabeth Lord — or Lord Franzannian, her alter ego and the maestro of the Royal Olympian Spectacular Vaudeville Show that bears his name. The 20th annual show, fully worthy of its hyperbolic name, opens Friday, Oct. 9.
When Lord and fellow entertainer Mark Franzen launched the show in 2007, vaudeville had all but faded into history. They, like others across the country, dug it up, dusted it off and brought it back to life.
Lord, the force behind the performing-arts festival BigShowCity, which lasted from 2001 to 2003, came up with the Royal Olympian Spectacular as a way to continue supporting the creative community and showcasing the vast range of local talent — which over the years has included sword-wielding belly dancers, performing dogs, burlesque acts from classically sexy to downright frightening and a wedge of cheese (it stood alone).
Before the first show, Lord did her research, learning how to name a vaudeville show (start with the presenter’s name, or in this case names, and then pile on the superlatives) and how to structure it (the first act should work even for late arrivals, and both the act before intermission and the closing act must be standouts).
That first year, Franzannian had rosy cheeks and a red hat and coat but had yet to acquire the off-kilter mustache and the big belly made from a pregnancy-simulating foam pad worn upside down.
“I was in ringlets,” Lord said. “I must have taken a curling iron and spent hours just making this hairdo. … The character evolved two or three years into the show’s existence.”
Franzen, who now lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., moved on to other pursuits after year 2, but Lord, one of Olympia’s best-known and best-loved performers, never wavered.
“It is very much my show,” she told Oly Arts. “I am the producer and director. I curate the lineup, run the box office, make the poster and program, do the publicity, hang the curtains, focus the lights and gather the door volunteers.”
She also helps to develop acts for those who have a talent but aren’t sure what to do with it, writes stories and sketches, and creates a throughline act for each show — an act that happens in three parts, tying things together and giving audiences the joy of welcoming back what rapidly feels like an old favorite.
A storyteller, actress, director, emcee, wedding officiant and budding playwright, Lord has many gifts and many projects. The vaudeville show, though, has special meaning.
“As I reflect on having produced the show over all this time, I think about the many performers I’ve met, most of them up-and-coming performers, and what I’m most proud of is bringing this group together to create a performing-arts community,” she said. “During the run, they have time to talk, and they collaborate with one another going forward. They write plays together, or they form bands together, or they do their own variety show together.”
Or they start their own puppet troupe — String & Shadow Puppet Theater — and go on to create another of Olympia’s favorite things.
In 2016, Donald Palardy III, then new to Olympia, was at work on a tabletop puppet show when he saw a flyer advertising auditions for the show.
“The auditions were happening in an hour,” Palardy said. “The puppet show was half-finished and I went home and threw it all in the car. My audition was essentially showing this half-made puppet show and going through the plot. … When I finished, Elizabeth liked it, but she was a little confused. She thought that the act was a puppeteer with an unfinished show.”
Lord said yes to the puppet play, which she described as “weird and wonderful.” Palardy completed it in time for the vaudeville show, and Emily McHugh, already a skilled puppeteer and puppet maker, was in the audience. That meeting was the start of what became String & Shadow, whose giant-puppet extravaganzas (often featuring Lord) are a summer staple.
And that’s not the only way Lord and her show affected Palardy, who since 2022 has been a mainstay of the show’s wildly eclectic band, which this year also includes Monty Kerson, Stephanie Layton and Razz Matazz.
“The impact of the vaudeville show on my life is sort of impossible to overstate,” Palardy said. “Elizabeth Lord became a really good friend and creative collaborator. … I had moved here from Connecticut, and I stayed here mainly because of the creative community — performers, musicians, people who make stuff.”
That community is probably the biggest reason Lord just keeps going on and on with the show, which happened even in 2020 in a virtual format that allowed pigs and goats to perform.
“I used to say, ‘Once I get to the 20-year mark, that will be it. The town will be tired of it, and I’ll be bored,’ ” she said. “But I keep getting excited, and people keep asking to be part of it.
“I just love giving opportunities to up-and-coming people and bringing people together,” she added. “That is my proudest thing.”
WHAT:
Lord Franzannian’s Royal Olympian Vaudeville Spectacular
WHEN:
8 p.m. Oct. 9-11, 16-18, 23 and 24, with an all-ages matinee at 2 p.m. Oct. 18
WHERE:
Wild Child, 414 4th Ave. E, Olympia
COST:
$20-$35 online (http://www.professionaltalker.com/vaudeville-show.html) or at the door, with no one turned away at the door for lack of funds
LEARN MORE:
http://www.professionaltalker.com/vaudeville-show.html