Lakeside Little Theatre’s final show of its 50th season is a gentle comedy which relates the seldom tranquil lives of five former members of their college swim team, “The Dixie Swim Club,” during their 30-plus years of friendship. Directed by Barbara Clippinger, it runs March 27 to April 5, except March 30.
Written by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten, highly prolific and widely produced writers of Southern comedies, television and hit movies. Wooten was the writer/producer on the ever-popular hit television show “The Golden Girls.”
Paulette Coburn and Sherolyn Gregory’s set design and decoration is delightful – bright, clean and authentically decorated to the point of inviting one to check out the booking availability.
The reason this group of women met at all, and have stayed in touch for so many years, is because of their love of swimming. Becoming firm friends in their college swim team, after 33 years they still manage to abandon jobs, husbands and children for one week a year, to get together, catch up and have fun, at the summer cottage on the beach on the Outer Banks, North Carolina.
Ostensibly still the team leader – and universally detested hors d’oeuvre maker – Sheree (Patsi Krakoff) tries her best to keep order. Meanwhile, intelligent and successful lawyer Dinah (Georgette Richmond) finds that when real life becomes the opposite of her high-flying career, a few exotic libations assist with the coping methods.
Frequently married but still hunting, Lexie (Candace Luciano) is the opposite of the self-deprecating and tediously small bladdered, accident prone Vernadette (Lynn Phelan) while Jeri Neal (Sharon Lowry) is a sweet girl, with a big heart, who is not averse to producing the occasional surprise. 
Act I Scene I takes place on the 22nd reunion after graduation and, as usual, there is always plenty of news and gossip for the Southern Belles to catch up on, not least of which is Lexie’s latest divorce – a surprisingly consistent triennial occurrence. No quitter, Lexie’s already worked her way through Randal, Clayton, and Troy and now she’s in hot pursuit of Leonard.
Vernadette, trying to placate Lexie:
“Lexie don’t we help you get through every disaster?”
“No. Vernadette, just the ones I tell you about, the really bad ones I only share with my mother and since she’s been in a coma, she’s been a lot less judgmental.”
Time passes and in Scene II, five years later the women are still celebrating the multiple joys and problems of children, marriage, career choices and aging, with a few nude swims accompanied by the inevitable team motto, “The faster we swim, the sooner we win!”
Act II Scene I opens with Vernadette vowing that Jeri genuflects when she buys a jar of Miracle Whip.
Lexie casts her eye across the beach for an acceptable successor for Leonard, and then invests in a pair of breast implants, which Vernadette suggests could definitely qualify for certification as official flotation devices.
There are some very good lines and clever ripostes in the second act but somehow it’s not quite up to the pace and sharp humor of Act I.
It’s an interesting tale; poignant, reminiscent, cogent and slightly discomfiting to every one of us in different ways.
At the very end, when the cycling Wilbur (Graham Miller) arrives to show some new renters over the cottage, Dinah’s comment leaps to mind. “There’s never an emergency so dire that it can’t wait until I get to the bottom of my glass.” On this occasion, she was absolutely right.
Stage Manager: Win McIntosh. Assistant Stage Manager: Sandy Jakubek. Set Construction: Richard Bansbach, Niels Petersen, Rick Bleier, David Bryen, Jonathan Kollin, Bryan Selesky, Joel Smith, Terry Soden, Nick Van Dinter, Ian White. Painting: Dana Douin, Elizabeth Reinheimer. Props: Beryel Dorscht. Costume Design: Paulette Coburn, Sherolyn Gregory. Wigs: Audrey Zikmund. Dressers: Heather Hunter, Karin Eichler, Irma Henson. Lighting: Pierre Huot, Rick Bleier, Jonathan Kollin. Sound: J. E. Jack, Hallie Shepherd. Makeup: Maryanne Gibbard, Sandra McKoy and crew.