Published on June, 2007 in New Jersey Monthly Magazine

BY Michael Parillo

A clown horn toots, and a server in a striped vest and bow tie scurries to a table shouting, “Ladies and gentlemen, this man ordered a cantaloupe sundae. On the count of three we’re going to point to him and say, ‘But I can’t elope—my father has the ladder!’” Giggles and groans ripple through the Music Man Singing Ice Cream Shoppe in Lavallette, and the show has yet to begin. Soon the lights dim and the servers re-emerge for half an hour of one-liners, goofy gags, cabaret numbers, and musical parodies. The talented cast of eight (most in their early twenties) always wraps up with a musical message: “Eat up, pay up, and get ooooouuut!”

The audience floats out the back door, and a new crowd is ushered in. So it goes, every 45 minutes from 6 pm until midnight, every night from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day. Husband-and-wife team Robert Agliata and Josephine Sessa-Agliata, who live off-season in Colts Neck, opened in 2003. Agliata serves as MC and cast leader. His wife, whose grandparents ran a Brooklyn candy store, is a graphic designer who handles Music Man’s media. Cookies, cakes, and buttermilk waffles are whipped up in the kitchen. The ice cream is made by Arctic of Trenton. “It’s quality, it’s mom-and-pop,” Sessa-Agliata says.