Here is the playbill for the coming year, not in correct order of course.

Some older guys—Vincent Raye, Shoots Veis, Ben Pretlow, and special mention of Ray Dale and Jeff Boschee—who know the ropes at Billings Studio Theatre are joined by some young women—Jennifer Olsen, MacKenzie DuBeau, and Catherine Kenney—who can play equally well. This is a Mitch Albom play with multiple levels of fairly surreal understanding, nicely staged and lighted so that scenes move so quickly that a tag line from one scene can be used as the opener for the next.

The director Bobbi Hawk has done well: in the Notes, she suggests that the play may be a “story of second chances,” or perhaps “a somewhat twisted study in reincarnation, or just plain silly fun.” Actually, it is all of those and more.

First of all it is almost entirely gentle laughing at a lot of what passes for “news/entertainment” in our newspapers or on the TV or big screen, and it has a nice preachy quality-especially the wisdom coming from the dummies—about many of our caricatures of the “others” in our complex society, and it allows all of us to be reminded that serious thoughts are sometimes contained within our jokes and irony. And finally, not everything means what we say nor does what we say necessarily have only one meaning.

This worth seeing. On tap ’til Holy Saturday.

Bookcase entrance to Frank's Secret Annex

We had seen this play several times, we saw the PBS version on TV and saw the movie too. So we almost declined to see it again, especially since the last time we had seen it we came away unsatisfied. We are very glad we went.

The present Billings Studio Theatre production, sponsored by Rita Heizer and directed by Byrl Skovgard, had that sinister dread quality that is so necessary since we the audience know the ending. Occasional lighter times of hope and sexual coming of age were done well too. Isn’t it amazing what changing from braids to let-down thick hair, and some new shoes with heels will do for a teenager who wants more than anything to grow up.

Like many of the older folk in the audience on Sunday afternoon, most of the players lived in their memories, even when they took a moment to plan a future event.

Anne Frank, about 13 years

Cosette McCave (Anne) and Brad Lambert (Peter) should be given an extra hand in the general applause for this fine production. Sexual awakening is not easy for young folks to do convincingly, especially when it is several generations ago.

The German language, of course, especially when loudly spoken, is perfect for ominous meaning even if you don’t understand it. Tears come to our eyes when we see the old black and white newsreels because we half expect to recognize some of our cousins in the crowds.

The play continues through the next couple of weekends. If you are unfamiliar with the story, go here and here and here. Worth seeing again.

Sunday afternoon matinee at Billings Studio Theatre allowed all of us elderly still continent and mostly ambulatory folks to have some fun with a classic small town satire—unlikely to be meant as affectionate originally—but now even the nasty slurs our friends from Texas assign to us small town folks these days are laughed off because we’ve become used to the bombardment from the partisans at MSNBC and Saturday Night Live.

Besides, we’ve seen Vint and Jeff do this before, in the 80s and the 90s, and probably in the noughties as well. Most of the audience thought they were getting better as they get older, though there still are a few inevitable timing problems because of all the costume changes required when Lavinder and Boschee play all the parts. They really do well, especially with the old lady parts. Excellent costumes and especially great hair pieces made things a little more believable.

This is still playing up to 23 January and tickets are still available. So get over there to have a laugh at yourself. It’s healthy.

For more info on BST go here.

For more info on Greater Tuna go here.

That is what BST says in a synopsis on their website. But there is more to be said than that. Vint Lavender and Kelly Martin have long been at least some princes in the royal family of farce in Billings’s community theatre. And they both give their usual excellent performances here.

But here is the news; they were joined by four others: Lisa Halpin, Chae Clearwood, Ashley Miller and CJ Jennings, all of them delivering strong performances in this nutty musical comedy that needs more than just two stars at the top as in the movie with Michael Caine and Steve Martin. And the ensemble singers and dancers did well too, though they were a little short on decent dancing guys. The main players were miked so the voices were reasonably balanced, and only a few lines got muffled from the ensemble people.

Perhaps it was just as well to have seen the movie and read about the Broadway play before seeing this production, but it isn’t necessay. There is a lot of corny word play, making fun of previous musicals and the American stage in general, and some opportunity for local improvisation and inclusion of the audience in the know about the shenanigans of these hooligans. Some bathroom and bedroom humor naturally: farts are always funny, and fooling around often gets your attention.

Director Sondra Baker always gets the best from her players. The music and set are worth commenting on as well. Things need to move quickly and they did. I guess that as long as your audience is in on the gag anyway why not show the scene changing as part of the show. This is worth going out of your way to see. It opened on 28 August and closes on 19 September.

It’s hard to pick out someone as standing out much further than the rest of the ensemble, they were all so good, though it seems fair to mention Steven Hrubes as the nerdy Dennis as a little more outstanding than all the rest.  I thought Kelly got the best out of all his characters, including, not surprisingly, a couple of his brilliant kids. There must be something to this genetics stuff. Fortunately the sheriff had only a few bars to sing, and everyone else was miked to good effect. All ages, genders and sexual preferences were equally gently mocked. Everything was well received by the very appreciative audience.

It was a sellout on Wed evening. The remaining three shows are also completely sold out. They will be doing a reprise sometime in July. Watch for it.

See a better summary of the whole thing in Wikipedia here, and a more conventional review of the local production by Jaci at the Gazette a few days ago. Jaci’s reviews are always worth reading. I think it was last Saturday.

Vint Lavender, Jeff Boschee and Vincent Ray taking their bows and singing a song after having fun Friday night at the Billings Studio Theatre. The play was about love, life and death, the Packers, ice fishing, Leinenkugel beer, and friends, which seemed to cover most of what is important amongst at least some guys from Wisconsin. And these guys did it well, not the most authentic accents, more like Minnesotan, if my memory serves me, but they were funny, very funny,  and obviously enjoyed playing with each other. Bobbi Hawk added to her directing plaudits.

Still on for another week. Go and see  it and wear your Packer gear proudly. Once a cheesehead, always a cheesehead.

The good Dr. Mueller has a nice review of opening night. Check it out.

• BIG SKY POLKAFEST: Al Bedoo Shrine Auditorium, 1125 Broadwater Ave. 2 p.m., doors open. 3-11 p.m., waltz, two-step, polka, jitterbug, schottische and country dancing. 656-7470.

• BURN THE POINT: Downtown. 5:30 p.m., staging for parade of classic autos. 7 p.m., parade travels west on Third Avenue North from North 26th Street and returns along Second Avenue North. Street dance with Bucky Beaver and the Ground Grippers follows in 100 block of North Broadway.

• “THE PRODUCERS”: Billings Studio Theatre, 1500 Rimrock Road. 8 p.m. Local cast in award-winning show by Mel Brooks, Thomas Meehan about past-his-prime theatrical producer and comeback try. $15. 248-1141.