Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical

"Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical" will be bringing the trailer park to Montana State University-Northern Friday.

Pam Veis, the artistic director of "Great American Trailer Park Christmas Musical," said that this show is a sequel to a play the Montana Actors' Theatre performed last year.

She said they began working on this play mid-October.

"We've been meeting and focusing on the musical aspects and the choreography," Veis said Nov. 3. She said these are the most difficult parts to learn of a musical.

The setting of the story is at a trailer park called Armadillo Acres in northern Florida. Veis said it has a little of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" themes wrapped into it, but in more modern sense.

"I would describe it as trashy and fun," Veis said.

Mary Kaercher and Haley Lippy are the choreographers for the show and will be starring in it as the narrators and in extra roles. They have been working with MAT for six and five years, respectively.

"It's nothing really, really like the old, but it's got the same trashiness," Kaercher said of the sequel.

Lippy said the sequel to the show they did last year will bring the audience back to the trailer park for a new story.

"This is all about the holiday season, but in a trailer park way," Lippy said.

Lippy said they wanted to do the show because "Great American Trailer Park Musical" was so popular in MAT's last season. She said the last night they performed the musical, they had to turn around 30 or 40 people away.

"It was our highest-selling show of the season, I think," Lippy said. "And our cast was so much fun. Usually you get to the end of the show and you're ready for the end, but we were like 'we could go another weekend.'"

Kaercher said the musical this year has the exact same cast, but they will be playing different roles.

"It's a new storyline, new characters, same cast," Kaercher said. "I think the only new one is Martin (Holt)."

There will also be a live band accompanying the actors during the musical portions of the production.

Veis said that the show contains offensive language and is not for children.

"It's only for adults who would enjoy that type of show," Veis said.

The show's website says this of the show:

"Holiday time at North Florida's Armadillo Acres means everyone's filled with warmth and beer. But when a freak bout of amnesia strikes the trailer park Scrooge, neighborly love is put to the test. With Betty, Lin and Pickles on hand to amp up the fracas and festivity, this all-new, all-trailer-park musical is just as much of a cat-fightin', sun-worshippin', chair-throwin' good time as the original - but with tinsel and Keg Nog."

Veis said that she had a couple of reservations about putting on the show, mainly because sequels are difficult to pull off, especially if the original was well-received. She said she decided to do the show because the cast was quite excited to perform it.

The musical director of the show is Sharon Dolph. Darren Overlie and Martin Holt will be sharing a role together and Patrick Ulano and Mindy Smith-Langel are also starring in the musical.

The musical's opening days are Dec. 5 and 6. The musical runs for two weekends after that - Dec. 11 to 13, Dec. 18 to 20 - and the Monday and Tuesday before Christmas, Dec. 22 and 23.

The playwright of both musicals is Betsy Kelso, and the music and lyrics were written by David Nehls.