A recent production of "Big River" at Heritage House Dinner Theater in Ft. Knox was a very good show, and well done. In fact, it was one of the best musical productions we had seen there.
The casting was excellent, and we must remember that the performers at the Heritage House are all volunteers. Volunteers from the Ft. Knox army and civilian community. Some very dedicated and talented people show up for the tryouts of the various productions that interest them, and this show apparently had an abundance of them.
Timothy B. Higdon gave a superb performance as Huck Finn, and matching him as Jim was Kenny Johnson. Huck had a lot of songs on top of a tremendous amount of dialogue, and Higdon carried this load with apparent ease. Several of the cast, including Brian Skurski, played multiple roles. Skurski almost used his scene as Pap Finn to steal the show as the drunken Pap expounding on the evils of guv'ment. Donald Mains Jr. ran a good second to this in the second act, expounding on Arkansas. The size of the cast and limitations of space will not allow me to elaborate on the rest of the cast; however, each one can be satisfied with a job well done.
Although the Mississippi River did not come flowing down the center of the stage, it was there just the same. And that old raft carried us right through Mark Twain's wonderful imagination just as he would have had us live it. The set was rather simple, and the backdrop provided a map on which it was easy to keep pace with the changing of the locales. It's a little hard to read and locate those things in the program in a darkened theater.
We went to be entertained and to enjoy a show, and that goal was well filled. Congratulations, Heritage House staff and "Big River" cast.