(Above: Achilles Massahos and Rebecca Nachison portray the comedy team of George Burns and Gracie Allen; photo by August Frank)
By Randi Bjornstad
As has become tradition, the last show of the Radio Redux season will be “just for the fun of it,” founder and director Fred Crafts says.
He calls the lineup, which follows the Radio Redux rule of re-enacting old classic radio shows from the 1930s through ‘50s, “a cavalcade of comedy classics, featuring early radio’s greatest hits by some of its best-loved performers.”
That would include skits by George Burns and Gracie Allen, Fibber McGee and Molly, and Abbott and Costello, to name a few items on the program. And for anyone who hasn’t heard of these old-time radio stars or the shows they were in, this is a chance to fill that gap with several offerings at once.
“Times were tough in the 1930s and ‘40s, and radio played a key role in cheering people up,” Crafts says. “Laughter still is the best medicine, and radio comedy is guaranteed to cure whatever ails you.”
The centerpiece of this Radio Redux show, titled “Burns & Allen and Friends,” is called — appropriately to this season — Income Tax Problems, and as usual, means that George Burns, and in this case the couple’s accountant, are trying to make some sort of sense out of wife Gracie Allen’s always convoluted logic. The original show aired in 1950.
The Abbott and Costello skit is the perennial favorite, Who’s on First?, and the Fibber McGee and Molly piece is a repeat for Radio Redux of the quintessential episode, Cleaning Out the Hall Closet.
There also will be an episode called Garish Summit from The Bob and Ray Show, which consisted of a pair of real radio announcers who parlayed their friendship and on-air banter into a favorite comedy show that originated in Boston in 1946. It eventually was broadcast on NBC, CBS, Mutual and National Public Radio networks until it ended in 1987. Their routines often included satire in the form of seemingly real interviews with various made-up characters. Mad Magazine recreated some of their work in graphic form in its issues.
The program also includes excerpts from the Our Miss Brooks, Pat Novak for Hire, Dragnet, and The Romance of Helen Trent programs.
Achilles Massahos and Rebecca Nachison portray Burns and Allen in the Radio Redux production. The cast also includes Dan Pegoda, Ken Hof, Sandy Siilverthorne, Al Villanueva, Carol Philips, Don Aday, and Jennifer Sellers.
Burns & Allen and Friends
When: 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, April 12-13, and 2 p.m.on Sunday, April 14.
Where: Soreng Theater, Hult Center for the Performing Arts, One Eugene Center (Seventh and Willamette streets in downtown Eugene)
Additional Details: Free pre-show talk by broadcast historian Patrick Lucanio 45 minutes before each show Jacobs Community Room; exhibit in the lobby of historic radio collectibles curated by Dennis Wright of the Radio Days Theater of the Mind Museum in Sutherlin; informal meet-and-greet with the cast after each performance.
Tickets: $22 regular, $19 for students and ages 65+, $16 each for groups of five or more; available at the Hult Center box office, 541-682-5000, or online at radioreduxusa.com or hultcenter.org
