Lawyers take to stage for fun, to raise money for charities
A Houston lawyers group hopes to pass the $1 million mark for local legal charities when it performs this year’s annual “Night Court” musical comedy through Aug. 22 at the Hobby Center.
The yearly spoof, written and performed by attorneys and judges, began decades ago as a project of the Houston Bar Association, then incorporated in 2014 as a nonprofit theater company, Night Court, said the show’s longtime director, Judy Frow, who lives in Oak Forest.
“In more than 20 years, we have raised almost $1 million, so we will pass that mark if we sell out this year’s performances,” said Frow.
“It will sell out,” predicted attorney Brandon Barchus, who lives in Timbergrove Manor and heads a law firm near the Galleria.
Barchus meets himself coming and going when he holds court in the show, called “LawyerMania: A Hard Day’s Night.”
“I play Dr. Evil and Austin Powers — at the same time,” he said. “I play them in profile, so I have to be very cognizant of exactly which side of the stage I’m on, which other characters I’m speaking to and which voice I’m using. I also have many conversations with myself.”
To top things off, the scriptwriters didn’t bother to give him a Mini-Me. “I wish,” he said. Mini-Me was Dr. Evil’s helpful assistant in the three Austin Powers mov-
ies that came out between 1997 and 2002.
“Those were my formative college years, and those movies were pretty popular,” said Barchus, who grew up in Beaumont, where he was president of the student body at Monsignor Kelly Catholic High School and an all-state baseball player.
“LawyerMania: A Hard Day’s Night” features music of the Beatles, with new lyrics crafted mostly by Debra Baker, a lawyer who lives in Bellaire and practices at Baker Wotring in downtown Houston.
For example, in keeping with the show’s 1960s theme, Baker changed the song “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to “We’ll Market You a Brand,” with appearances by fictional advertising wizard Don Draper and other characters from TV’s “Mad Men.”
Baker changed “Back in the U.S.S.R.” to “Back in the Texas State Bar,” which Barchus sings.
Barchus is accompanied on trombone by his Timbergrove Manor neighbor, Peter Strenkowski, a lawyer at Phelps Dunbar in downtown Houston.
This is Strenkowski’s fourth year in the “Night Court” orchestra of mostly lawyers.
This year, they’re called the Night Court Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Barchus said that, after graduating from Baylor Law School in 2005, he wanted to join the cast of the “Night Court” shows from the first time he saw a performance.
Strenkowski told him of an opening in 2013, so Barchus auditioned and landed the role of a tree.
“You wouldn’t think a tree would require much acting, but I tell you what, it was really, really fun,” he laughed.
“There were three trees, and a meteor hit the earth, so the trees were dying, and there was some hamming-it-up.”
This year’s choreographer/producer, attorney Marty Thompson, made her entrance into the organization by stealing the show in 2012, climbing a 24-foot silk ribbon and spiraling back down as a highlight of “Viva Laws Vegas.”
Thompson, who works at the Hess Corp. in downtown Houston, had practiced the routine on a ribbon that her father installed at her condominium in the Heights.
The show’s executive producer is attorney Scott Davenport, who runs a litigation boutique in Midtown.
Among other participants in the cast and behind the scenes, the following are featured: Dan Bawden, Konne Bawden, Kathleen Bertolatus, Suzanne Burke McKay, Matthew Cammack, Sharron Cammack, Ben Connally, Kirsten Davenport, Dan Fehler, Les Fox, Cody Garrett, Liza Greene, Bonnie Hellums, Janiece Horn. Heather Hughes, Ashley Hymel, Colin Jenkins, Allen Karger, Martin Kastenbaum, Laura Kemp, Ted Korth, Susan Kuether, Elizabeth “Peaches” Lockett, Bruce Lundstrom, Marty Lundstrom, Patrice McKinney, Leigh Meineke, Cody Menefee, Melisa Moncure, Veronica Montemayor, David Olener, Jeff Rackler, Paul Shanklin, Kevin Shaw, Sheri Shoemake, Gene Smith, Patrick Stayton, Tara Taheri, Janet Thompson, Paul Tierce, Joe Villarreal Sharron Wall, Angela Wood and Ann Zdansky.