The Last Night of Ballyhoo
Book By: Alfred Uhry
Directed by: Pat Kennedy
Produced by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service
Run of Show
“Last Night of Ballyhoo” ran November 5 – 20, 1999 Thursday through Saturday at 8:00pm, Sunday at 2:00pm
Synopsis
THE LAST NIGHT OF BALLYHOO takes place in Atlanta, Georgia, in December of 1939. GONE WITH THE WIND is having its world premiere and Hitler is invading Poland, but Atlanta’s elitist German Jews are much more concerned with who is going to Ballyhoo, the social event of the season. Especially concerned is the Freitag family: bachelor Adolph, his widowed sister, Beulah (Boo) Levy, and their also widowed sister-in-law, Reba. Boo is determined to have her dreamy, unpopular daughter, Lala, attend Ballyhoo believing it will be Lala’s last chance to find a socially acceptable husband. Adolph brings his new assistant, Joe Farkas, home for dinner. Joe is Brooklyn born and bred, and furthermore is of Eastern European heritage–several social rungs below the Freitags, in Beulah’s opinion. Lala, however, is charmed by Joe and she hints broadly about being taken to Ballyhoo, but he turns her down. This enrages Boo, and matters get worse when Joe falls for Lala’s cousin, Reba’s daughter, Sunny, home from Wellesley for Christmas vacation. Will Boo succeed in snaring Peachy Weil, a member of one of the finest Jewish families in the South? Will Sunny and Joe avoid the land mines of prejudice that stand in their way? Will Lala ever get to Ballyhoo? The family gets pulled apart and then mended together with plenty of comedy, romance and revelations along the way. Events take several unexpected turns as the characters face where they come from and are forced to deal with who they really are.
The People …
Leading Roles
in order of appearance
| Adolph Freitag | Norb Mills |
| Boo Levy | Sherry Ballou |
| Reba Freitag | Jean Mills |
| Lala Levy | Kathy Piech |
| Sunny Freitag | Lauren Plungas |
| Joe Farkas | Ben Lumbrezer |
| Peachy Weil | Jake Gordy |
Production Staff
| Director | Pat Kennedy |
| Producer | Ben Lumbrezer, Barb Vaught |
| Set Design | Matt Wiederhold |
| Stage Manager | Debbie Marinik, Joanne Toth |
| Lighting Design | Jake Gordy, Ben Lumbrezer |
| Lighting Crew | Dan Marinik, Charlie Lumbrezer |
| Costume Design | Sondra Henry |
| Costume Crew | Rhea Kimball |
| Property Managers | Andy & Vicky Anderson |
| Property Crew | Ernie Brown, Jean Brown, John Henry, Brenda Sweeney, Barb & Rick Vaught |
| Set Construction | Matt Wiederhold |
| Sound Design | Don Weber, Steve Zaborniak |
| Sound Crew | Mark Malley, Don Weber |
| Program | Don Weber |
| Program Art & Cover Design | Rhea Kimball |
| House Manager | Ann Veasey |
| Box Office | Ann Veasey, Joe & Carol Kwiatkowski, Judy Wiederhold, Roger Whitmore, Kimberly Bruggemann, Sue Hollinger, Lisa Jackson |
| Program Printing | Malhoit Printing |
| Theater Marquee Signs | Willard Misfeldt |
| Cast Photography | Bev Norman |
The Show!
Place: Atlanta, Georgia
Time: December, 1939
Act I
Scene 1: Early evening
Scene 2: An hour later
Scene 3: Aboard the Crescent Limited
Scene 4: Eight a.m. the following morning
Scene 5: Eleven o’clock that night
Act II
Scene 1: The next morning
Scene 2: That night
Scene 3: Eleven a.m., Christmas morning
Scene 4: The next night
Scene 5: At the Standard Club
Scene 6: Several hours later
Scene 7: Aboard the Crescent Limited
Scene 8: The Freitag home