The Wayne Theatre Alliance is bringing its River City Radio Hour to the Hamner Theater this weekend.
The Radio Hour features drama — that would be Hamner co-artistic director Peter Coy’s “The Return of the Maltese Falcon” — music and comedy in a variety show format. The show, part of the Hamner’s In the Cabaret series, is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday.
“It’s very much like the old variety shows that used to be on the radio back in the ’30s and ’40s,” says Clair Myers, River City Radio Hour’s director and announcer and the executive director of the Wayne Theatre Alliance, a group dedicated to restoring and operating Waynesboro’s Wayne Theatre.
Myers and the River City Players have been doing the Radio Hour for two years. They usually do one serial spread out over three months, with each chapter in the saga taking about a month, Myers says.
Coy’s “Falcon” begins with a mysterious stranger interrupting a radio dramatization of Dashiell Hammet’s “The Maltese Falcon,” and the plot twists include Russian gangsters, an emissary from the Pope and bodies dropping everywhere.
It was originally presented as a four-part serial, with each part ending in a cliffhanger, and will be seen in its entirety for the first time at the Hamner.
“When we first started this, I thought it would be neat to (eventually) put it all together,” says Myers, who has divided the show into two 45-minute acts.
The Radio Hour also features music from pianist Liz Barnes and vocalist Llyn Walker, and comedy from Marsha Howard, sometimes referred to as Waynesboro’s “Lady of Laughter.”
Tickets are $20, or two for $35, and reservations must be made in advance. Admission includes food (the Mexican-themed menu features guacamole, quesadillas, bean enchiladas, chicken with peanut sauce and pork or bean taquitos), and a cash bar will be available.
For more information or to reserve tickets, call (434) 361-1999.
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