Over a decade before Riverdance, theatregoers got swept up by dancing on and around the Missippi River, with Huck Finn and runaway slave Jim taking their adventures in the 1985 musical, Big River. North Carolina's Flat Rock Playhouse is reviving the Tony-winning show, beginning tonight, July 30. With a score by Country n' Western songwriting legend, Roger Miller, and a book by William Hauptman, Big River adapts the Mark Twain novel, Huckleberry Finn, about a young man coming of age in the 1840s and coping with everything from racial intolerance to greed, romance and adulthood. Songs in the show include "Muddy Water," "Hand For The Hog," and "River In The Rain."
Stephen Ayers directs the Flat Rock production, which features Phillip Brown as Jim and Brian Bazala as Huck. Other cast members include Bob Cooke, Steve Carlisle, Scott Treadway and Michael Edwards.
For tickets ($23) and information on Big River: The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn call (704) 693-0731. The production runs through Aug. 10.
--By David Lefkowitz