The Livingston Film Series will present the next in its free screening series with Waiting for Guffman on Thursday, March 12th. The film begins at 7pm at the Shane Lalani Center for the Arts.
When the town of Blaine, Missouri approaches its sesquicentennial, there’s only one way to celebrate: with a musical revue called “Red, White & Blaine.” Hoping the show will be his ticket back to Broadway, impresario Corky St. Clair (Christopher Guest) rounds up a cast of enthusiastic but untalented locals (Eugene Levy, Fred Willard, Catherine O’Hara) to perform his masterwork. But, when Corky reveals that theater agent Mort Guffman will attend the opening, things really kick into high gear.
Blaine was founded, we are told, 150 years ago by settlers trekking to the West Coast who stopped when their leader “smelled the salt air.” Its place in history has been cemented by two events.
The first, the presentation of a wooden stool made in Blaine to President Grover Cleveland which led to the city becoming the “stool capital of America.” The second, when a flying saucer landed nearby the town in 1946. Within the resulting crater, it was “always 67 degrees with a 40 percent chance of rain.” Local residents were invited aboard for a potluck supper, and one of them still has no feeling in his buttocks.
The hilariously strange history of Blaine leads to a ridiculous production of “Red, White & Blaine.”
Continuing its latest season of screening independent features, documentaries, local films and vintage classics, doors open at 6:30pm with screenings to follow at 7pm. Admission is free, but donations are gratefully accepted. Concessions available. For more information, please visit www.theshanecenter.org.
The Livingston Film Series is generously sponsored by Marilyn Clotz & Mary Ann Bearden and Donald B. Gimbel. •
