From Broadway to Bedpans!
Subtitled Mason County After Dark!, this rollicking dinner-theatre revue was written for the 20th Annual Mason District Hospital Auxiliary Dinner Theatre in Havana, Illinois. It is a community variety show in the old vaudeville tradition: emcees Morgan and Shannon try to keep a parade of local singers moving along, while a determined comic named Toby keeps crashing the stage, peddling "Peanuts! Popcorn! Ex-Lax!" and insisting that performing at the Mason District Hospital Dinner Theatre is the dream of every young boy in Havana. "Forget Broadway! When you've made Havana you're at the top!"
The script is a loving roast of its own hometown. Toby's patter mines Havana's small-town pride and the surrounding hamlets — Bader, Bath, Matanzas Beach, Duncan Mills, Manito, Boggs — for laughs, and folds in classic Burns-and-Allen-style cross-talk routines between bits. Ken built the show around the real talents of the community, threading a string of musical numbers performed by named local singers through the comedy, and closing with a group finale. A live drummer was suggested for rim shots after the vaudeville jokes.
The humor is firmly rooted in place. Havana, the script reminds us, took its name from nearby "Cuba Island" in the Spoon River, was once the most important inland fishing port in the United States, and in its heyday boasted three movie theaters, gambling houses, and a reputation that supposedly drew Al Capone himself. The show wraps all of that local color in a benefit for the hospital — entertainment that, as Toby complains, "feels more like a colostomy" but is all in service of a good cause.
Musical Numbers
- "Hey Jude" (The Beatles) — Ryan Kolves
- "King of the Road" / "Love Me Tender" / "Proud to Be an American" — Bill Blessman
- "The Rose" (Bette Midler) — Jill Zeeck
- "I Fall to Pieces" (Patsy Cline) — Denise Rebman
- "Bye Bye" (Jo Dee Messina) — Emily Morgan (Friday evening only)
- "Anything You Can Do" (from Annie Get Your Gun) — Debbie Yetter and Cameron Lippert
- "I'll Fly Away" — Gary Blakely and Denise Rebman
- "Man of Constant Sorrow" (Soggy Bottom Boys) — Josh Peterson, Tyler Southwood & Deny Bryant
- "Summertime" / "Cry Me a River" — Kate Badger
- "One Fine Day" (The Chiffons) / "Mr. Sandman" (The Chordettes) — Carmen Wuebbels, Melissa Roat, Rhonda Hines and Riki Layton
- "Hit Me with Your Best Shot" (Pat Benatar) — Jennifer Bolgrihn
- "Live Like You Were Dying" (Tim McGraw) — Joe Rodriguez
- "Yankee Doodle" / "Marine's Hymn" / "When the Saints Go Marching In" / "Ten Little Indians" (tonettes/recorders) — Teresa Locash, Diana Hardesty, Chris Troxell and Doug Mueller
- Liz Carter & Family
- "To All the Girls I've Loved Before" (Willie Nelson & Julio Iglesias) — Cathy Barnes & Mary Caldwell
- Group finale
Cast
- Emcee — Morgan
- Emcee — Shannon
- Comic — Toby
- Nurse Goody
- Dr. Markley
- Cathy Barnes
- Mary Caldwell
Production Notes
Written for the 20th Annual Mason District Hospital Auxiliary Dinner Theatre, a community benefit in Havana, Illinois. Working titles considered for the show included "Hells-a-Poppin' in Havana!", "Mason Medical Musical Madness!", and "Mason County After Dark." The script calls for a single live drummer to punch the vaudeville jokes with rim shots, and several numbers offered the performers a choice of songs. Local flavor came courtesy of Havana friends who supplied Ken with neighborhood color — the river bars at Buzzville and Goofy Ridge, the Lawford Theatre's country-music concerts, WDUK radio, and the town's gambling-era lore.