Darla, Alfalfa, Buckwheat, Spanky
Bio[]
Romyo And Jullet is Spanky McFarland's interpretation of William Shakespeare's (spelled "Shakspeer's") romantic-tragedy Romeo And Juliet. In the play, Alfalfa Switzer plays Romeo, and Darla Hood is Juliet, but she walks off the play to be replaced by Buckwheat Thomas because of Alfalfa's fondness for eating onions for his voice.
The play opens with Alfalfa as Romeo visiting Darla as Juliet in her family's castle to profess his love to her and to ask her run away with him. Darla's first reaction is to ask if he's been eating onions, and then mutters she will leave with him that night. Buckwheat, as a castle servant but in his native African costume making him rather out of place for sixtheenth century Italy, announces that Juliet's father, played by Spanky, is coming. Seconds later Spanky arrives, sword in hand. He sends Juliet to her room, and tells Romeo to prepare to die. The enusing swordfight is won by Alfalfa, as offstage Porky plays dramatic music on a phonograph. As the audience applauds, Spanky gets up from the floor to take a bow with Alfalfa. When Porky lowers the curtain, Darla announces that she is quitting because of Alfalfa's onion breath.
Spanky tells Alfalfa to find another Juliet, and that he will stall for time with his old weightlifting act. Spanky lifts and lowers a fake hundred pound weight and a hundred pound barbell, with Porky dropping a cannonball in sync with Spanky setting the weights on the floor. On one occasion Porky drops the cannonball when Spanky throws a handkerchief on the floor, but no one besides Spanky seems to notice. After the act when Spanky is taking some bows, Porky comes onstage to carry the weights off behind Spanky's back, eliciting plenty of laughter from the audience, who then boos Spanky.
Spanky's stalling for time is successful, as Alfalfa announces he's found a swell Juliet. He starts the balcony scene, but first has to get rid of a chicken standing on his long cloak. He calls for Juliet, and Buckwheat appears on the balcony, now in the Juliet costume Darla had been wearing. The audience shouts out "it's Buckwheat!," and the stand-in Juliet takes a few seconds to happliy acknowledge the crowd. Alfalfa climbs a ladder, but soon after he and Buckwheat start their conversation, the ladder wobbles backwards. Alfalfa tries to save himself by grabbing Buckwheat, but instead pulls off his Juliet wig. The ladder teeters back and forth, but with Buckwheat reaching out they are able to clasp hands and pull Alfalfa to safety. While replacing the wig, Alfalfa tells Buckwheat to hold on to the ladder, which he does, but since the balcony is attached by ropes to a ceiling rafter instead of secured to the wall, they rock back and forth as they continue the scene. This still works until Alfalfa leans close to Buckwheat to remind him to hold on tight, at which point Buckwheat is overcome by Alfalfa's onion breath and lets go of the top of the ladder. The balcony swings back and crashes hard yet harmlessly into the wall, but this time there is nothing within reach for Alfalfa to grasp as the ladder wobbles some more. Spanky lowers the curtain just before Alfalfa falls through it. When Alfalfa gets up he is greeted with much laughter, but the overall performance is good enough the audience sees fit to pay the one cent ticket price as they exit.