‘Will Rogers Follies’ comes to CPHS

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Crown Point High School students Kim Kovacik, who will play Betty Rogers, and Jacob Barber, who will play Will Rogers, practice their lines for the play Will Rogers Follies during rehearsal on Friday, February 10, 2012, inside the auditorium at the high s

Updated: February 21, 2012 4:12PM

“The Will Rogers Follies: A Life in Revue” is coming to Crown Point High School. It is a presentation of the CPHS Theater Department.

The entire show is a salute to the leading political wit and wisecracking commentator of his time, and his folk comments hold true today.

He was a humorist on the Vaudeville stage and in print. He wrote more than 4,000 newspaper columns, syndicated nationally, and made many national radio appearances. His political commentaries were couched in his own humorous folksy terms, and were widely quoted: “I am not a member of an organized political party. I am a Democrat.”

He was the Steven Colbert or Jon Stewart of his day.

This cowboy turned the top-paid movie actor received fame and fortune when it was not politically correct to honor an American Indian. He was born to a prominent Cherokee family in Indian territory, now part of Oklahoma, in 1879.

If you can possibly make time in your schedule this is worth coming to see. The CPHS thespians have an outstanding record of outstanding performances. This should tickle your funny bone with Rogers’ humor, and delight your ears with the beautiful sounds of the fun music.

According to a press release from the high school, this production uses the backdrop of “The Ziegfeld Follies,” which he often headlined, and describes every episode in his life in the form of a big production number.

The Rogers character also performs rope tricks between scenes. The revue contains snippets of Rogers’ famous homespun style of wisdom and common sense and tries to convey the personality of this quintessentially American figure whose most famous quote was, “I never met a man I didn’t like.”

The entire quote goes like this: “When I die, my epitaph, or whatever you call those signs on gravestones, is going to read: ‘I joked about every prominent man of my time, but I never met a man I didn’t like.’ I am so proud of that, I can hardly wait to die so it can be carved.” Rogers died in an airplane crash in Alaska on Aug. 15, 1935.

Get your funny bone ready and get your tickets right away. Reserved seating tickets are available starting Feb. 29. Performances are: March 16-17, 22, 23 and 24 at 7 p.m. There is a matinee at 2:30 p.m. on March 18.

Adults $13, students or senior citizens $9. Call the Box Office at 663-4885, Ext. 11604.