Samantha Panther
Created by Angus Kohm

The play's the thing when rough-and-tough private eye SAMANTHA PANTHER (a flatfoot in heels) takes the New York stage in Tough Girls Don't Sing. According to the press release, Samantha's a "super-cool, super-tough, super-crime-fighting detective on a raw, brawling, two-fisted hunt to nab the woman and get the man. Clawing her way through a web of gorgeous men, blazing guns, blackmail, and deadly music, Panther discovers that sometimes, in a world of corruption, it's sing or be killed."

Deadly music? Does that mean Barry Manilow?

The current production is evidently something of a family affair, what with Brett Sullivan Santry directing and Stephanie Santry (taking over from Stefanie Wiens, who featured in the original) starring as the dame who don't sing (well, except for two songs). There's also a psychotic psychiatrist, a dead friend, a twisted sister, a ruthless lesbian mobster, a hard-nosed cop named Patty, and an ex-boyfriend called Johnny Salami.

Angus Kohm, the playwright, hails from Manitoba, Canada. Tough Girls Don't Sing was evidently written as a tribute to Mickey Spillane on his 80th birthday. It was first performed at the Montreal Fringe Festival to rave reviews, then went to Ottawa,Toronto, Winnipeg, Kelowna, Victoria, Vancouver, and finally Duncan, British Columbia, in 1998. Other works by Kohm include Sorority Girls Slumber Party Massacre and Bad Girls Jailhouse. Yup, looks like Angus is something of a full-tilt pulp dramatist. He's currently writing his first full-length musical. The September 2000 production in New York marks Tough Girls' American premiere.

UNDER OATH

• "Kohm may have created a whole new genre of pulp fiction when Panther calls gorgeous suspect Fred an 'homme fatal.' "
  (Peter Rusland, The Pictorial, Duncan, BC)
• "A laugh a minute..."
  (The Montreal Gazette)
• "Sam Spade would've loved this dame..."
  (The Winnipeg Free Press)

PLAYS

• SAMANTHA PANTHER, P.I.: TOUGH GIRLS DON'T SING (1998, Montreal)
  Original production: 1998, The Montreal Fringe Festival
  Written by Angus Kohm
  Starring Stepfanie Wiens as SAMANTHA PANTHER
  .
• Most recent production:
  March 3-11, 2001
  The Raw Space, West 42nd Street, NYC
  Directed by Brett Sullivan Santry
  Starring Stephanie Santry as SAMANTHA PANTHER
  Also starring David Belisle, Stephanie Flores, Mark von Oesen
  

RELATED LINKS

• Rubbed Raw
  Angus Kohm's web page, with more on all his works, including, of course, Tough Girls Don't Sing.

BOOKS

• Samantha Panther, P.I.: Tough Girls Don't Sing -- The Book (1998)
  Available through Rubbed Raw.

RELATED LINKS

• All the World's A Stage
  Plays, Operas, Musicals and Other Theatrical Diversions featuring Private Eyes.

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Thanks to Stephanie Santry for the heads up. Merde!