Passavant Follies 2010
2010 · Jacksonville, Illinois
The Passavant Follies returned in 2010 as a community benefit revue for Passavant Area Hospital, written and directed by Ken Bradbury for a cast drawn from across Jacksonville, Illinois and its neighboring towns. Subtitled "A Season of Friendship," the show was a homegrown variety musical in which volunteers — doctors, bankers, pastors, and friends — filled the stage to raise money for the hospital.
The framing story follows Wayne, a beleaguered writer haunted by the nightmare of producing yet another Follies. In the dead of night he is visited by the smooth-talking B.L. Zeebub — "Benton Leroy Zeebub" — and his bumbling assistant CLD, a "Cute Little Devil" everyone simply calls Claude. Desperate for a plot, Wayne signs their contract, only to find himself caught between the schemers below and a pair of angelic counterweights, Archie Angel and his stuttering helper Chuckie Cherub. The conceit lets the show romp through Broadway parodies, local sponsor scenes, and affectionate jabs at hometown institutions and personalities.
Ken's journal for the production survives under the title "A Season of Friendship... A Journal of the Passavant Follies 2010," recording the show's long gestation from a coffee-shop recruitment by Ginny Fanning and Jan Fellhauer through months of writing aboard the Spirit of Peoria riverboat, an Alaska cruise, and countless rewrites. As he noted, quoting Neil Simon: "Plays are not written. They are rewritten."
Musical Numbers
Many of the songs were re-titled Follies parodies of well-known standards. As staged:
Act I
- "No Business Like Soul Business" — B.L., Claude, Nancy, Wayne, Singers
- "Sensation" — Singers, B.L., Claude
- "Razzle-Dazzle" — Edith, Mimsy, Christine, Claudette, Prudy, Paula
- "Biddy Biddy Bum" — Board Chairman
- "Let's Hit Our Knees" — The Chaplain
- "Side by Side" — Board Chairman, The Chaplain, the V.P.
- "Passavant Tonight"
Act II
- "Passavant Tonight! (Reprise)" — Singers, Soloists, B.L., Archie, Claude, Nancy, Wayne, Chuckie
- "Gonna Build a Mountain" — D.L. Lawrence Singers, Soloist
- "The One" — Wayne, Nancy, Back-up Singers
- "Getting a Loan From You" — Dalton, Farmers Bank Singers
- "Rock Around the Square" — Dalton, Farmers Bank Singers
- "Consider Yourself One of Us!" — Janet, JSB Singers, Kazoo Band
- "The Town Medley" — Nancy, Wayne, Town Singers
- "No Business Like Soul Business (Reprise)" — Claude, B.L., Wayne, Singers
- "Keep Your Head Up" — The Chairman, the Ensemble
The Town Medley wove a string of standards into a tour of the surrounding towns, including "Baby Face" (Murrayville), "Hello, Dolly!" as "Hello, Franklin," "Four Leaf Clover" (Meredosia), "Sentimental Journey" (Arenzville), "If You Knew Suzie" (Beardstown), "Roll Out the Barrel" (Pisgah), "Tennessee Waltz" (Winchester), "Ain't She Sweet?" (Lynnville), "My Country 'Tis of Thee" (Roodhouse), and "Michael Row Your Boat" (South Jacksonville).
Cast
- Wayne — Nathan Carls
- Nancy, his wife — Carrie Carls
- B.L. Zeebub — Brad Barnes
- CLD / Claude, B.L.'s assistant — Travis Deaver
- Chet Wynn — Chet Wynn
- Archie Angel — Bob Chipman
- Chuckie Cherub, Archie's assistant — Eddie Carpenter
- V.P. — Marc Steinberg
- Chaplain — Patsy Kelly
- Chairman of the Board — Keith Bradbury
The "Razzle-Dazzle" group featured Regina Estes (Edith), Janet Chipman (Christine), Tammy Middleton (Paula), Terri Kimler (Mimsy), Stephanie Soltermann (Claudette), Lori Hall (Prudy), and Sue Tapscott (Nikki). Large ensembles of Soul Business singers, "Passavant Tonight" singers and dancers, a Jacksonville Savings Bank Kazoo Band, Farmers Bank singers, and Town Lounge singers rounded out a company of dozens of community volunteers. The Chairman and Committee scenes featured local physicians Dr. Ernst Chester Bone, Dr. Walter Meyer, Dr. Omar Panella, and Dr. O.C. Zink, Jr.
Production Notes
The Follies was a benefit for Passavant Area Hospital, organized through the hospital Auxiliary with co-chairs Jan and Bob Chipman and championed by Ginny Fanning and Jan Fellhauer. Ken Bradbury wrote and directed the show, with vocals led by Lynda Locke and a logo and program photography by Kevin. Ken's journal documents the writing across the spring and summer of 2010, much of it composed while touring aboard the Spirit of Peoria riverboat and at Starved Rock Lodge, with a guiding philosophy that "everyone who auditions must be in the show." The script reflects that generous spirit, building scene after scene around the town's sponsors, banks, churches, and characters.
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