Originally published in the Alameda Times-Star in May 2003, arts critic Chad Jones chronicles the energetic stage adaptation of Wigfield: The Can-Do Town That Just May Not, tracking how Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello, and Stephen Colbert adapted their printed satire into a live theatrical tour across America.
By Chad Jones — Alameda Times-Star (2003)
SAN FRANCISCO — If you thought the printed edition of Wigfield was an assault on good taste and civic pride, wait until you experience the authors inhabiting their monstrous creations in the flesh.
Onstage at San Francisco’s Palace of Fine Arts, Amy Sedaris, Paul Dinello, and Stephen Colbert are seated behind simple lecterns, but what unfolds is far from a sedate literary reading. With lightning-fast vocal shifts, grotesque physical contortions, and unhinged timing, the trio breathes chaotic life into the residents of Wigfield—a fictional American small town so thoroughly debased that its impending destruction beneath a reservoir seems less like a tragedy and more like municipal euthanasia.
The Dynamics of “The Three Idiots”
“When we wrote the book, we were basically improvising dialogue into a tape recorder while sitting in Stephen’s living room in New Jersey,” explains Paul Dinello, who directed the stage presentation. “Adapting it for the stage was the most natural thing in the world because every line was conceived to be performed aloud.”
The premise of the stage show follows self-absorbed freelance journalist Russell Hokes (voiced by Dinello), who arrives in Wigfield on an ill-conceived quest to write an uplifting human-interest profile of a dying town. What he encounters instead is a nightmare carnival of human delusion: * Mayor C.L. Craft: A stroke-afflicted municipal figurehead manipulated by an arsonist police chief. * Cinnamon: A weary, cigarette-voiced exotic dancer (played with unforgettable ferocity by Amy Sedaris). * Donny Larson: A predatory strip-club proprietor whose complete lack of moral conscience reflects Colbert’s sharpest character satire.
“We wanted to satirize the sanctimonious tone of mainstream television journalism,” notes Stephen Colbert. “Russell Hokes isn’t interested in helping anyone in Wigfield; he just wants a compelling narrative that makes him look heroic. And the residents of Wigfield are so desperate for attention that they’ll say anything to stay in his notebook.”
The Power of 15 Years of Collaboration
What elevates the performance beyond mere sketch comedy is the extraordinary telepathic connection between the three performers. Having worked together since their 1988 Second City touring company days, Sedaris, Dinello, and Colbert anticipate each other’s pauses, ad-libs, and sudden tonal pivots with flawless precision.
“We have zero vanity when we’re together,” says Sedaris. “If Paul tells me a line isn’t working, I cut it. If Stephen throws in an unscripted reaction, we run with it. When you’ve known each other for fifteen years, you don’t waste time protecting egos.”
The sold-out tour—which traveled to Chicago, New York, Boston, and San Francisco—confirmed that the distinctive comic brand forged on Exit 57 and Strangers with Candy continues to thrive. Whether on cable television or on the theatrical stage, Sedaris, Dinello, and Colbert remain three of the most original and unapologetic satirists working in American comedy.