The cast of  "The Fox on the Fairway"

By Cheryl Thornburg

Community theater is a labor of love and there’s plenty of it in Fleetwood Community Theatre’s current production of Ken Luwdig’s “The Fox On The Fairway.”

A talented cast with actors from all over Berks County bring Ludwig’s zany farce to a new location, the stage at St. John’s Lutheran church in downtown Kutztown.

There’s plenty of chicanery and plotting in this tale of a rivalry between two country clubs battling it out in an annual golf tournament and the subplots of who loves whom add another dimension to this action-packed comedy.

Brian Miller plays Henry Bingham, the uptight director of Quail Valley Country Club, whose job is on the line if the club loses for the sixth year in a row.  He thinks his newest member, an excellent golfer, is just the ticket to a sure win and he bets his arch rival $100,000 and his wife’s antique shop. What he doesn’t know is the new member has jumped ship and joined the other side with Crouching Squirrel Golf and Racquet Club.  Brian Miller is appropriately stiff and condescending in this role in perfect contrast to his longtime rival Dickie Bell, played to weasely perfection by Stan Durlak.

Bingham seems to find a solution to his dilemma when he discovers that his newest employee, a naïve young man named Justin Hicks, is a great golfer. Bingham manages to make him a member so he can compete in the tournament.

Steve Miller plays Hicks with such a likable sincerity that the audience is rooting for him in both the tournament and his love life.

The latter comes in the form of Melissa Kopicz as Louise Heindbedder, a waitress at the club.  The two play off each other well and Kopicz demonstrates a real flair for comedy.

Elizabeth Limper has one of the most fun roles to play as Pamela Peabody a flirty Quail Valley board member and ex-wife of Dickie Bell. Limper makes the most of this sexy, vindictive ex.

Bingham’s wife,  Muriel,  played by Cheryl Bleiler, is only heard as a garbled voice over the phone in the first act, but makes her presence known when she takes the stage full steam ahead in the second act. Her interaction with Brian Miller as her husband is just plain fun to watch.

Unseen, but often heard, Bob Barskey adds his own special brand of comedy to his voice-overs as the club’s announcer.

“The Fox On The Fairway’ may not be as well known as Ludwig’s other plays such as  “Lend me a Tenor” and  “Leading Ladies,” but it is every bit as funny and outrageous with lots of twists and turns that take the audience to a satisfying and hilarious conclusion.

 “The Fox On The Fairway” continues this weekend at St. John’s Lutheran Church, 201 E. Main St., Kutztown, Friday at 7:30 p.m  Saturday’s show also offers a Dinner & Show performance with dinner at 6:30 p.m., and the show at 7:30 p.m. The Sunday matinee is at 3 p.m. March 17. The church is easy to find and there is ample parking in a lot behind the church on South Maple Street.

Tickets are $15 for the show only and $30 for the dinner and show can be purchased at  http://fctspringshow.bpt.me or by calling 1-800-838-3006. Dinner & Show tickets must be made in advance. Show only tickets can be purchased at the door as cash only sales.