An Evening with Ken Bradbury and Friends
"An Evening with Ken Bradbury and Friends" was a portable, two-act variety revue that Ken built to take into the small towns of west-central Illinois, retooling the script town by town so that each community could laugh at, and cheer for, its own history. The surviving scripts document at least two stagings: a fundraiser for a new Senior Citizens building at the Girard Christian Church (Friday, March 26, 7 p.m.) and a performance in White Hall, Illinois on May 2, 2010.
The format mixed everything Ken loved into one evening. There were Broadway solos and duets — Jodi's "Love Changes Everything," Brad's "If I Loved You," and a "Summer Lovin'" finale — alongside piano features for Brock (Maple Leaf Rag, Beethoven), guitar numbers from Brad ("Shenandoah," "The Water Is Wide"), and old-time sing-alongs ("I've Been Working on the Railroad," "School Days"). Sentimental standards like "Sentimental Journey" set the mood, and the night closed warmly with "God Bless America."
Threaded between the music were Ken's signature comedy sketches — a string of "Couples' Scenes" pairing famous duos (Barbie and Ken, Cleopatra and Marc Antony, Batman and Catwoman, Homer and Marge Simpson, Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, Samson and Delilah, Tarzan and Jane, Adam and Eve) into wry little arguments about how men and women never quite understand each other. Brad worked the crowd with an "ask the audience" battle-of-the-sexes bit, and the cast delivered a fast-paced "History of the World." But the heart of the show was always the hyper-local material: affectionately rewritten parodies and recited tales drawn from each host town's real past.
Songs
- Sentimental Journey
- My Old Girard / Girard, Girard (a parody of "New York, New York")
- Love Changes Everything — Jodi
- If I Loved You — Brad
- Summer Lovin' — Jodi, Brad, and company
- Maple Leaf Rag — Brock
- Those Were the Days (rewritten with local lyrics)
- Alabama Jubilee / In the Mood / Darktown Strutters' Ball (Gulf Coast medley)
- Shenandoah — Brad (guitar)
- The Water Is Wide — Brad (guitar)
- I've Been Working on the Railroad (sing-along)
- School Days (sing-along)
- In the Garden
- Amazing Grace — Ken and Brock duet
- Cherokee National Anthem
- Battle Hymn of the Republic
- God Bless America (closer)
Cast
- Performer / Host — Ken
- Performer — Brad
- Performer — Jodi
- Performer — Travis
- Performer — Brennan
- Performer — Katie
- Pianist — Brock
Production Notes
The show was deliberately modular. The same core sketches and Broadway numbers traveled from town to town, while whole segments were swapped out to celebrate the host community. For the Girard performance, a "My Old Girard" parody and a "History of Girard" segment gathered up real local lore — the brutal snowstorm of January 1855 that froze a bridegroom to his saddle, the town's first coal fire in 1871, balloon ascensions, lamplighters, and lightning calculators. The Girard staging was a benefit for a new Senior Citizens building, held at the Girard Christian Church.
For White Hall (May 2, 2010), Ken wrote a parallel "History of White Hall," tracing the town from Thomas Allen's 1818 settlement and James Allen's stagecoach tavern to a moving Civil War sequence about Edward L. Hager, a fourteen-year-old drummer boy from White Hall who followed the army to St. Louis, and the writing of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic." The script also nods to White Hall's brush with Abraham Lincoln, who is said to have dined at the Amos Hotel on his way to a duel at Alton. The town-specific parodies of "Those Were the Days" good-naturedly ribbed neighboring towns — Roodhouse, Carrollton, Alsey, Manchester, Nilwood, McVey — a hallmark of Ken's gift for making an audience feel like the show was written just for them, because it was.