The Herald Bulletin
INDIANAPOLIS — It’s a familiar cast in a new show to Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre as it celebrates Christmas in July with the Singing Sanders Family.
“A Sanders Family Christmas,” the original sequel to “Smoke on the Mountain,” is live on stage this summer, July 8 through Aug. 22.
The audience becomes the congregation at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church. The Sanders Family have been invited to return for singing and witnessing on Christmas Eve, 1941, before sending the boys off to World War II. Even one of the Sanderses’ own, Dennis, will be called to service.
Audiences will be able to catch up on all their favorite characters from “Smoke on the Mountain.” Dozens of carols — including vintage hymns — add to the Yuletide stories of the more-or-less devout Sanders Family in this down-home and heartfelt production written by Connie Ray.
The cast consists of returning favorites including Sara Hund as June Sanders, the hilarious “signing” sister; John Vessels as Reverend Mervin Oglethorpe, pastor of Mount Pleasant Baptist Church; Jayson Elliott as Stanley Sanders, the unrefined uncle; Andrew M. Ross as “the boy” twin, Dennis Sanders, and Bob Payne as the patriarch, Burl Sanders.
Tickets range from $34 to $57, and include Chef Odell Ward’s dinner buffet, full salad bar and unlimited coffee, tea and lemonade. Parking is always free. For reservations, call the Box Office at (317) 872-9664 between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. daily.
