THE RUTABAGA Ranger Rides Again, Terrace Little Theatre’s dinner theatre production, could as well be called Romancing the Saloon.
Birdie owns a saloon and realizes one day she wants the one thing she doesn’t have: a man.
However, there isn’t much choice in the town.
That is, until B. Bertram “Bighorn” Smith enters.
Smith, who owns all the saloons in town except Birdie’s, intends to be her suitor, mostly to romance the saloon out from under her for himself.
Then, as he tells her barmaids, Blanche, Mona and Peaches, they will all be out on the street without jobs.
Determined to find another suitor for Birdie, the bar maids go looking for a reasonable choice but chaos and problems arise for them along the way.
Director Garnett Doell says besides the comedic parts, there are a couple of dramatic scenes and a happy ending.
The Roy Teed play was chosen for this year when it became a hit during play readings late last year for the dinner theatre.
The bar maids are Kayla O’Donnell as Mona, a lush and the matriarch of the barmaids; Alice MacGregor as Blanche, who tries to keep everything running smoothly and Mona from drinking too much; and Kelly O’Donnell as Peaches, who decides that a guy named Tooley, played by Ben Bradford, would be a decent suitor for Birdie.
Tom Fairley is Ackers, the town constable, who hangs around Birdie’s saloon a lot, perhaps from getting kicked out of the other saloons in town, and who’s none too happy about the idea of Birdie and Smith as a couple.
Cheryl Spencer plays Birdie and Joe Zucchiatti is Smith.
Stage manager Chris Stone plays the bartender and is onstage for the entire play, even though he doesn’t say a word.
For details on the dates when The Rutabaga Ranger Rides Again through town, see City Scene.