'Dearly Beloved' keeps the laughs coming

The Sermonettes from the play "Dearly Beloved" at the Bartlett Performing Arts and Conference Center .

There’s a wedding at the Bartlett Performing Arts and Conference Center this weekend the likes of which you’ve never seen — and would never want to see except on stage.

But, oh, what an event it is. The Southern farce “Dearly Beloved,” by Jessie Jones, Nicholas Hope and Jamie Wooten, is a successor to “Dearly Departed,” a theater favorite about the zany goings-on of a Texas family in deep dysfunction trying to plan a funeral.

The Sermonettes from the play "Dearly Beloved" at the Bartlett Performing Arts and Conference Center .

It seems that weddings can be just as traumatic — and hilarious.

Ruth Johnson is directing “Dearly Beloved” and was drawn to it when she got involved in the Bartlett production of “Dearly Departed” last year. “I took a role in that show directed by Jason Spitzer and we laughed from the first day until we struck the set."

The hysteria is catching, which you’ll understand when Johnson explains her creative influences: “Think ‘The Carol Burnett Show’ doing a combination of ‘Gone With the Wind’ and ‘Hee Haw.’”

The three lead characters are the Futrelle sisters, a Texas trio who keep tripping over themselves in trying to pull off a “Gone With the Wind”-themed wedding.

Just to give you an idea: there’s a bride, the bride’s twin, a groom (whom we never see), the mother of the groom, a possibly unfaithful husband, a wedding planner, a seminary student drafted to replace the minister, a sheriff, a medical crisis, a potluck wedding “feast” sponsored by Clovis Sanford’s House of Meat, communicating with the dead, the reuniting of a gospel trio and an elopement.

Three of the city’s most gifted comedic actresses are the sisters: Mandy Lane as the super-stressed mother of the bride, Emily Peckham as the scandalous and much married prodigal, and Amy Mays as the desperate spinster with an agenda.

Adding to the mayhem is Ron Gordon as Wiley whose unfortunate character has been overmedicated and is left to wander around the church issuing hilarious announcements.

“Usually, when you direct a comedy, you quit laughing at the jokes after a while,” Johnson says. “But in every rehearsal from day one, I’ve still been laughing out loud. That’s the kind of cast that we have.”

“Dearly Beloved“

The show runs Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. at the Bartlett Performing Arts and Conference Center, 3663 Appling Road. Tickets are available for the Thursday show, but the weekend shows are sold out. Tickets are $10. For more information, call 385-6440.

© 2010 Go Memphis. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.