Hellzapoppin' Take 2!
by john daniels, jr.

Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m.
June 25 & 26
July 9 & 10
July 16 & 17
(No performances Independence Day weekend.)

Tickets available online soon.  $10 Adults;  $8 Seniors 60+;  $7 Students High School and College;  $7 Active Military and Veterans;  $5 all children 14 and under. 
Rated G

Tickets are available on line. 

They are also available at the door 30 minutes before the show starts.  House opens 30 minutes before show time.
Excerpt from feature article:

This comedy revue with tunes is based on the Ole Olsen and Chic Johnson musical of the late 1930’s and early 1940’s.  Hellzapoppin’ was the longest running musical of its time, but it wasn’t a musical in the Broadway mold - the critics of the day called it a “Circus Musical.”  The comedy team of Olsen and Johnson presided over a rule-breaking exercise in hysteria that will never be seen again.  “That is why we are not trying to do what they did,” says playwright and director daniels. “We are taking the spirit and idea and combining it with our own sense of humor to have a wild time and share it with our audience.” 

“I am very happy and excited to be able to write and direct a play for The Silver Anniversary Season of my friend Chester Eitze,” says daniels.  “You must see this cast.  They are wonderfully strange and perfect for this party… ah, play.”  The cast of nineteen includes Opera House veterans, Jon-Michael Williford, Kody Dyer, Jamie Damon, Jim Sanders, and Christopher Bothwell. 

Jon-Michael Williford also contributed to the madness by writing a scene for the second act of the show.  “Let’s just say it’s a fresh take on organ donation,” teases daniels.

Hellzapoppin’ welcomes many new comers to the Opera House stage: Ranisha Shipp, Charla May Cason, Jillian White, and Shane Hook from Bastrop High School; 2010 Bastrop High graduate Thomas Munos; local dancer and choreographer Cheyenne Lambert and her six year old daughter Kya who is making her first ever stage appearance. 

Also making his Opera House debut is someone known mostly as “Danielle’s Dad,” Hal Huber.  “Hey, if I had been in two more plays this would be my third,” says Hal, as he is abruptly escorted backstage by his daughter.  Danielle Huber recently seen as The Red Princess in The Red Princess Goes West and as the Weather Wolf in Fairy Tales on the Mars Frontier, finds herself playing against type as a nine year old stage diva. 

Other members of the cast include daniels’ usual suspects, Michael McGary, Megan Mossman, Matt Torrez, and April Daniels, the show’s musical director. 

“Olsen and Johnson’s motto was ‘Anything Goes!’”  says daniels, “ but I really like how they ended their shows ‘May you live as long as you like, and laugh as long as you live.’”

The cast: 

Back row left to right:  Jim Sanders, Jamie Damon, Hal Huber, Charla May Cason, Kody Dyer , Ranisha Shipp.
Middle:  Megan Mossman, Michael McGary, Kya Lambert, Jon-Michael Williford, Danielle Huber, Jillian White.
Front:  Shane Hook, Christopher Bothwell, Matthew Torrez
Not pictured:  Christine Huber, Cheyenne Lambert, April Daniels, john daniels, jr.