Cumberland County Playhouse has determined where there's "Smoke," there's fire.
The Crossville, Tenn., theater will open its 18th season of "Smoke on the Mountain" on Wednesday with a cast of actors who have brought the singing Sanders family to life at both the CCP as well as on national tours.
"Our company has made 'Smoke' a real Tennessee tradition," Playhouse producer and chief executive officer Jim Crabtree said in a news release, "and we're excited to reunite Jason, Bobby and Patty in the Playhouse cast one more time."
Jason Ross, a former Chattanoogan, portrays pastor Mervin Oglethorpe, who has invited the Sanders Family Singers to his Appalachian church in Mount Pleasant, N.C., for an evening of gospel music, circa 1938.
Bobby Taylor, who directs the show, portrayed Burl, the Sanders family patriarch, in the off-Broadway revival.
Patty Payne, according to CCP marketing specialist Katy Parrent, has not been in the show for two years but played June Sanders for many years previously.
Also returning to the cast is director/actor/musician Daniel Black, who will portray Uncle Stanley, the tough ex-con who comes home to church and family, in the show. The troupe also includes "Smoke" veterans Lauren Marshall as fiddlin' Mama Vera and Leila Nelson and Austin Price as twins Denise and Dennis.
The show features more than two dozen songs, a bit of testifying, and there might be a little gossip spread.
According to Crabtree, Playhouse alumni "have helped bring 'Smoke' to the entire country in the nearly two decades of our production, including New York, national tours and at theaters across the South, including the Ryman (in Nashville), Chattanooga's Tivoli and Knoxville's Bijou in Tennessee."
He said the CCP production also has played in Bartlett (near Memphis), Athens, Morristown, Greeneville, Cookeville, Newport and LaFollette, among other towns.