Waiting for Guffman

The city of Blaine, Missouri is celebrating its sesquicentennial, and what better reason could there be to put on a show? Corky St. Claire (Christopher Guest), current leader of Blaine's community theater group and creator of a stage musical version of Backdraft that led to the unfortunate destruction of the theater, has been commissioned to put together a musical about the city's noble history, "Red, White and Blaine," which stars a variety of the town's theatrical talent. Corky's cast includes Ron and Sheila Albertson (Fred Willard and Catherine O'Hara), a pair of married travel agents that Corky calls "the Lunts of Blaine;" Allan Pearl (Eugene Levy), a dentist who insists that he wasn't the class clown in high school but did sit next to him; Libby Mae Brown (Parker Posey), a sweet young thing who lives for her job at the Dairy Queen; and Clifford Wooley (Lewis Arquette), an "Old Blainian" who makes gun racks from deer hooves. Somehow, Corky has persuaded a major theatrical producer in New York to send a representative to look at the show — is it possible that "Red, White and Blaine" could be headed to Broadway? Christopher Guest directed and co-wrote this very funny mock-documentary, in addition to playing the flamboyant Corky; Guests's partners from This Is Spinal Tap, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer, helped write the memorable songs for "Red, White and Blaine." — Mark Deming