It’s easy to see why ‘Big River: The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn’ was such a huge hit when it premiered on Broadway in 1985, running for over 1.000 performances. This is a show with a magic recipe, Mark Twain’s great narrative and rich array of characters, adaptation by William Hauptman, and a great score, with a winning mixture of bluegrass and country music, put together by one of America’s music legends, Roger Miller.

Sutherland Music Theatre’s (SMT) current revival, directed by Gavin Leahy, is a bold, fun production. An energetic, large cast get right into the spirit of this classic journey down the mighty Mississippi.

The production proved to be a showcase of some really good local talent. Andrew Fabris as Huck and Ed Mafi as Jim were outstanding in the leads. As Alice’s daughter Malaca Mafi showed off an amazing voice. Julian Batchelor and Murray Stanton made a great comic duo as the King and Duke. Ken Dillion gave an authentic performance as Huck’s hopeless father and performed well, together with Andrew Fabris, in one of the play’s big scenes when he went chasing after Huck in a blurred,alcoholic haze.

SMT’s impressive production of ‘Big River: The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn’ is currently playing Sutherland’s Memorial Arts Theatre, East Parade, Sutherland with its closing performance on the 25th April, 2010 at 2pm.