All of us here at the Holabird Advocate are quite concerned that the young lady photographed here, one Anastasia Elisabeth Nemec Has not been blogging since her 21st birthday last spring. Now, our Publisher was 21 once, and he remembers what he did when he turned 21, and he is quite certain she didn't do that, because he was watching the Democratic National Convention on CBS. Whatever she's doing, she needs to stop doing. In fact, we'd like her to work part time at the Hinkle Empire. We'll give her 500,000 shares of Holabird Advocate stock, and the title of Chief Executive Ambassador of the Northern Hemisphere (Queen of England is already taken). This offer will be null and void if she has appeared in any videos with "Gone Wild" in the title!

Later on today, Jerry Hinkle will be loading up the Thrustmobile and getting up to see the home folks. He'll be getting ready for his cousin's Andy's wedding on Friday, then back home Sunday for another date with the dishes

OK, Let's get one thing straight from the get-go. Dolly Parton, Burt Reynolds, and Dom Delouise. Like me, they did not even audition. Those who did, in fact, show up to audition put on a great show. The singing was almost always pitch perfect, the choreography was excellent, and the acting superb. Some of the material presented was not suitable for children, and in some cases, not suitable for my 90 year old Grandmother. My aunt Joan would have used 3 bottles of Ivory liquid on the Sheriff alone. Yet the show was about a house of ill repute, and I'm quite sure the audience knew that. As it happens, Dolly Parton herself referred to the movie as "The Best Little Chickenhouse in Texas"

The show was above average as far as the technical aspects went. A few microphones went out at the wrong time. The "Watchdog" scene, where the house lights were of and flashlights were on gave the impression that there was either smoke of a cloud of dust on shade. I'd like to know how they did that! However, there were either too many ladies at the Chicken Ranch, or not enough character development. We only really only got to know Ms. Mona, Jewel, Angel, and Shy. The rest of the ladies were little more than decoration.

Of all of the characters in the show, my favorite has got to be the villain of the piece, one Melvin P. Thorpe. As portrayed Paul Zeller, Thorpe is a twisted amalgam of Porter Wagner, Jimmy Swaggart, any sleazy talk show host you care to name, and a dash of JR Ewing. His goal is, just fresh from making some candy company beg for mercy, looking to shut down the Chicken Ranch to feed his own publicity machine just because he can. It is hinted that he avails the services of an even more unsavory establishment of ill repute in the city, but that does not dissuade him. He exposes the Chicken Ranch on his "Watchdog" show and goes all the way to the Governor of Texas himself to get the job done, and not to give too much away, but he does shut the place down! At the bows, Zeller was booed. Yeah, He reached his goal! This roll was sort of a comeback for Paul Zeller. On behalf of the theatre-going public, I say

WELCOME BACK!

The highlight of the show for me was Cheri Hamilton's solo as Doatsey Mae. She put her heart and soul into that song, and it showed. Hamilton told me tater that in real life, she had worked as a waitress. hopefully she made better coffee than Doatsey Mae. Lacey Laurendeau's solo, "Twenty-Four Hour's of Lovin'" would be a close second. It's a powerful song and different than what she usually sings at First United Methodist Church whenever she pays us a visit from her studies at USF. Her Musical Education background has served her well. To give the guy's credit, the "Aggie Song" number was wonderfully executed. Not only did the fellas put their heart and soul into the routine, but their bodies as well. It looked like quite a workout.

Bottom line, this show gets thumbs up from me. The company of players took the issues of prostitution and hypocrisy, made fun of them, then got serious about them, and made their audience think between laughs. One member of the audience was heard to say, "There should be more Sheriffs like that!" In my research for this review, I discovered a Sequel where Ms. Mona manages a Las Vegas brothel for the IRS. If there's a part for Melvin P. Thorpe, I'd work as an usher AND pay to see it!

On a personal note, I've become acquainted with quite a few members of the cast of this play, seeing them in other shows, and working with a couple of them in other projects, and I must say that Al Jacklin gave the best performance I've ever seen as the Sheriff. The sight of him holding a pistol still makes me nervous. When he gave the admonition to turn off our cell phones in character, I did just that! He was just that convincing