Vintage USO revue set for July 4 in Jefferson
JEFFERSON, Texas — The Opera House Theatre Players present a vintage USO show with music and skits Saturday evening at Jefferson’s VFW Hall.
The Players will present the July 4 show at both 5:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Seating will be limited because of social distancing measures.
The show features several specialty acts dating from USO shows staged during World War I, World War II and the Korean War. For example, a trio known as The Liberty Belles will perform as The Andrews Sisters. The singers are
Penny Mann, Lisa Daye and Karen Eppler.
Other celebrity acts include Bob Hope, Mae West, Burns & Allen, Marilyn Monroe, Marilyn Maxwell, Irving Berlin and Abbott & Costello, each played by various actors with the Bob Hope character serving as the master of ceremonies, who introduces these famous USO performers and their comedic repartee and routines.
Jane Maddox directs this show, which is roughly an hour long, while Marcia Thomas serves as producer and costumer. Proceeds go to Marion County Veterans Memorial Wall upkeep and the Players’ 31st season productions.
“We cooked this up, to tell you the truth, right after we did our ‘Radio Days.’ We just enjoyed that so much and we seemed to have a real good response from the audience,” Thomas said.
They typically do a season-ending musical, but this season has been atypical, she said. “We thought, well, let’s try to do something similar but something that we put together rather quickly that has a little bit of nostalgia to it and takes people back to a different time when things weren’t so messy,” Thomas said.
With a patriotic day of July 4, a USO show was a natural fit. “This was a great idea once after we got really into it and decided what acts to use,” Thomas said. “We got people that were available.”
With so many shows cancelled, experienced performers from Shreveport, Louisiana, were available to join. Much of the work has been done virtually. Maddox, an Austin-based board member, has directed from afar until this week.
Three older women are portraying The Andrews Sisters, Thomas said. “They are good singers and they’re doing The Andrews Sister thing,” she said, noting a piano player who’s about 9 years old is performing, too, as Irving Berlin.
“He’s going to sing that great tune that Irving Berlin wrote and made famous himself, ‘Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning,’” Thomas said. She suspects it will be a show highlight.
They’ve created dialogue, as well, while some of the stage chatter is from their standard comedy routines, such as the “Who’s on First” routine from Abbott and Costello.
“I think it’s going to run about an hour and 15 minutes. It should be highly entertaining,” Thomas said.
She believes in this venue they can seat about 30 people per show with social distancing. As of early this week, the 5:30 p.m. show was filling up fast, so she recommends people get tickets for the 7:30 p.m. show.
(Tickets: $18 for adults and $10 for students. Tickets are available at JeffersonOperaHouseTheatrePlayers.com, at The Willow Tree or by calling 903-6658243.)