Like the return of a favorite uncle who’s been away for many years, the Cumberland County Playhouse is bringing back a past favorite.
“Tennessee, USA!” a musical that combines history and fantasy, was the production with which the Crossville facility opened its current theater in 1965. The show, which opened Thursday, is returning for the first time in the 21st century.
“We’re excited,” said Jim Crabtree, the playhouse’s producing director who was 20 when he was a member of the show’s original cast. “We have a great cast. Over the years, we continued to update it, and we’ve done so again.”
This season marks the 13th time Cumberland County Playhouse has produced the play — which has been seen by more than a quarter million people — but the first time since 1995.
Crabtree said veteran theatergoers will remember the show, but it will be new to a whole new generation.
IF YOU GO* What: “Tennessee, USA!”* When: Through Aug. 28.* Where: Cumberland County Playhouse, 221 Tennessee Ave., Crossville, Tenn.* Admission: $14-$26.* Phone: 931-484-5000.* Website: www.ccplayhouse.com.
The story, written by his late father, Paul, finds a modern-day family transported to primeval Tennessee when the family’s Cherokee aficionado son digs up some magic powder.
To make it back, the family must make the same decisions their ancestors did. En route, they live through the area’s ancient history, through its Civil War past, its entrance to the 20th century and to the present day.
Along the way, its principals meet such state luminaries as Andrew Jackson, Davy Crockett, John Sevier, W.C. Handy and Chattanooga’s Bessie Smith.
The fictional family will be portrayed by the likes of playhouse alumnus Carl “Butch” Sutton, a Pulaski native who was a teenage dancer in the original cast and now is family father Henry Willoughby; Patty Payne, an oft-seen actress at the theater who is returning after an absence of several years to play family mother Evelyn Willoughby; and resident guitarist Daniel Black, who will portray Johnny Timberlake.
Many of the songs are original, according to Crabtree, but a few — or snippets of several — will be familiar, including “America the Beautiful.”
On July 15 and July 17, when the theater’s celebrates its 45th anniversary, “Tennessee, USA!” will be a sing-along show, he said.
With a cast of more than 80 people, “it’s a big musical,” Crabtree said. In fact, it is likely the show that caused Opryland officials to invite the elder Crabtree to create all the former theme park’s shows when it first opened, he said.
“We hope folks will come back and enjoy it with us once again,” he said.