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Get your 'ticket to ride' the annual Langton Showtime

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Popular music from the 1950s will be featured at this year's Langton Showtime, April 28-30.

And a little 60s for good measure.

"It's 1959 actually," said Langton Showtime's Judy DeKorte.

"It's a 'very' thin plot," she laughed. "There's a lot of corny jokes, and every now and again somebody segues into singing their song. The crisis in the plot this year is that the boys won't ask the girls to the prom. And it's 1959 so the girls can't ask the boys, they didn't do that in '59. And you can't go without a date..."

Script-work started in January, music rehearsals in February. Langton Showtime features about 30 performers in total, including solos and groups, and a wide selection of 50s and 60s music. Songs like At the Hop, Woolly Bully, Purple People Eater, My Boyfriend's Back, Welcome to My World, and Da Do Run Run.

"We had heard the music, but we didn't really know it," admitted Jennifer Donck, who was rehearsing with teen friends Erin Staley and Rachel Sys Saturday afternoon. "It's really cool to go through the old songs."

Donck sings Ticket to Ride, while Staley and Sys team up for Respect.

"We know the audience will love that music," said DeKorte. "Everybody loves that music, don't they? I'll bet they know 95 per cent of the songs, and we encourage the audience to sing along – and dance."

Admission is $11 in advance from Showtime members, or $12 at the door. Thursday (Senior Night) fills up fast, said DeKorte, but tickets are still available for Friday, April 29 and Saturday, April 30.

"Friday's usually our lightest night."

Doors open at the Langton Community Centre at 7 p.m., and the two-hour show begins at 8 p.m.

"It's a bargain at twice the price."

The Langton Showtime tradition goes back to 1971.

"It started as a joint church choir – eight (United) churches in southwest Norfolk," said DeKorte. "We used to do Christmas and Easter cantatas.

"We said, 'why can't we do anything fun?' Shirley Knowles, who started this all, wrote the first show and put it on for one night in Langton in 1971. And then we would alternate, church music one year, a show the next year. Then we started to getting more and more people from the community involved so we became a separate entity. I think it was about 1980 when we became Langton Showtime."

Performers vary in age, from as young as seven-year-old Ricky Assel all the way up to Ricky's 70-plus year old grandfather.

"And any year in between," said DeKorte, noting Ricky's mother, cousins and grandparents all perform. "We have a couple of family dynasties. All of us old 'middle age' people, our kids have come up and through, been and gone, and moved on. It's just a great opportunity to showcase some local talent."

It continues to be fun, she said, and that's what keeps them going.

"Everybody who's involved, we just have a lot of fun, don't we?" DeKorte asked Ricky.

"Uh huh," he nodded.

"We do it because it's fun, and the crowds still come out to support us. They've always supported us. And the Langton Lions. We keep enough in our nest egg to keep it going the next year, but we also do three bursaries every year – to Valley Heights, Delhi and Holy Trinity – because we've had students from those schools. And we've made donations to the two elementary schools in Langton (Sacred Heart Catholic School and Langton Public)."

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