Meet the folks of Greater Tuna in new Gaslight Dinner Theatre production

Release Date: 8/15/2008. Expired: 10/18/2008

A simple party skit turned into a critically acclaimed comedy production that has become one of the most-produced plays in the world and a command performance at the White House. Now the rollicking laughs of Greater Tuna roll into the Gaslight Dinner Theatre at The Renaissance Center in Dickson Sept. 4-Oct. 18.

Performances of Greater Tuna will be Fridays and Saturdays beginning with a buffet dinner at 6:30 p.m. Tickets are $30 and include dinner, drink, dessert and the performance. Lunch matinees for seniors 55 and over will be Thursdays and Fridays beginning with a buffet lunch at 12 p.m. Tickets are $20 and include lunch, drink, dessert and the show. Greater Tuna is presented in the Gaslight Dinner Theatre by Tennsco, manufacturer of filing cabinets, desks, lockers, shelving and other office systems.

Greater Tuna is an outlandish satire on life in rural America created by Joe Sears, Jaston Williams and Ed Howard. Two actors play more than 20 characters — including men, women, children and animals — who inhabit Tuna, “the third smallest town in Texas,” where the Lions Club is too liberal and Patsy Cline never dies. The story begins with the death of Judge Roscoe Buckner from an apparent stroke while wearing a 1950 turquoise Dale Evans one-piece swimsuit with “lots of cowgirl fringe” and ascends from there into outrageous characters and non-stop laughs.

The show began more than 20 years ago as a party skit the trio created based on a political cartoon. Early tour dates found an instant audience coast to coast, as the show played to packed houses in San Francisco, Atlanta, Houston and Hartford before Sears and Williams found themselves performing Greater Tuna for more than a year Off-Broadway at Circle in the Square Theatre. That led to an HBO special produced by Norman Lear, which took the Greater Tuna phenomenon to every city in America.

By 1985, Greater Tuna was the most produced play in the United States and Sears and Williams took the show to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington and two command performances at the White House for President and Mrs. George Bush in 1990 and ’91.

The popularity crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1988 as the highlight of Scotland’s famed Edinburgh Festival while the Marines Memorial Theatre in California began a record-breaking seven-year run.

The demand for a sequel became so great that Williams, Sears and Howard created A Tuna Christmas, in which the beloved citizens of Tuna contribute their special brand of humor to the holidays. A Tuna Christmas received rave reviews on Broadway and is coming to the Gaslight Dinner Theatre Nov. 4-Dec. 19.

To complete the Tuna Trilogy, the trio has written the final installment, Red, White and Tuna, which is touring nationally.

“We’ve been dying to do Greater Tuna ever since the idea of creating the Gaslight Dinner Theatre was first discussed eight years ago,” said Pacer Harp, artistic director for The Renaissance Center. “We are so excited to finally get the chance to present this hilarious show and even more thrilled that we’ll be following it with A Tuna Christmas for back-to-back productions that will have you laughing like never before.”

Harp and Greg Pragel will be featured in the Gaslight’s production of Greater Tuna, which is being directed by Amy Scott, assistant artistic director.

Harp has appeared in several Gaslight Dinner Theatre productions, including Smoke on the Mountain, Sanders Family Christmas, I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change, The Foreigner and Run for Your Wife.

Pragel made his Gaslight Dinner Theatre debut in A Chorus Line and appeared in the Mind Enriching Theatre series production of High School Musical on Stage. The Buffalo, N.Y., native and graduate of Niagara University has performed with Downstairs Cabaret Theatre, Mill Mountain Theatre, Playhouse on the Square in Memphis and Sesame Street Live!

Scott previously helmed Gaslight Dinner Theatre productions of Chicago, Run for Your Wife and The Foreigner.

For more information on the Gaslight Dinner Theatre production of Greater Tuna, presented by Tennsco, call (615) 740-5600 or visit www.rcenter.org. To purchase tickets, call (615) 740-5601.

The Renaissance Center is a fine arts education and performing arts center at 855 Highway 46 South in Dickson, just 35 miles of Nashville on Interstate 40 at exit 172.

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