I had my doubts about "Charleston: The Opera," which Squonk Opera presented twice Saturday at the Capitol Complex's Cultural Center, but the Pittsburgh-based performance company put them to rest well before the end of the first act.

I became a believer when vocalist Autumn Ayers and Jackie Dempsey hopped into the little old red convertible for a drive around town.

As video shots of Charleston flashed on a screen behind them, they traveled at breakneck speed across the South Side Bridge and up Bridge Road toward the specialty shop Cornucopia. "Boy, he wasn't kidding about the curvy road," one said to the other.

Their automotive trip took them up to the airport - "a little construction up here" and finally off the beaten path. "Somehow, we're in the river."

This was a zany but serious look at Charleston. Squonk Opera interviewed 29 local people, from Mayor Danny Jones to in-her-90s-and-hasn't-quit-yet activist Helaine Rotgin, and from Taylor Books owner Ann Seville to three of the better-known religious leaders: Monsignor Edward Sadie, Rev. Matthew Watts and the Rev. Jim Lewis.

"You can walk down any street and you see three people you know and one person you haven't seen in five years," a woman says.

"It has enough of what I need without being complicated," a man says.

"I love that when you go to the grocery store, it takes 30 minutes longer than it should," a woman says. So many friends there.

Squonk takes the textbook history and the Chamber of Commerce history as starting points to be modified and transformed into dance, song, cinema and theater - all flavored with a bit of circus.

After Jeff Bukavinsky talks about living in Huntington twice, and each time coming back to Charleston, a Squonk actress comes on stage wearing a Huntington T-shirt. Other actors bring out a tiny howitzer, lower the barrel in her direction, and fire what turns out to be a "Charleston: The Opera" T-shirt.

Charleston dance groups participate. Three teenage girls from River City Youth Ballet Ensemble do a wonderful modern dance.

Three couples do some elegant ballroom dancing in a number choreographed by Leigh Ann Swigger.

In the only filmed interview that might be a put-on, one man says he dreamed one night that Charleston was its own planet.

Sure enough, the spotlight turns to the balcony, a huge Planet Charleston balloon emerges and moves toward the stage, and a muscleman lifts it on his back. The sun and moon circle the planet.

Angel wings sprout on vocalist Ayers and electric horn player Steve O'Hearn who are lifted - suspended horizontally - 15 feet in the air as the show comes to an end.

For something with "opera" in its name, singing plays a noticeably small part in this production, but the Squonk people are masters of movement and invention as they push out one creative idea after another.

Reach Bob Schwarz at bobschw...@wvgazette or at 348-1249.