You know the adage, \u201cWhen you\u2019re served lemons, make lemonade.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Last week at this time, I wanted to share this information with you, however, I was scurrying to find some lemonade!\u00a0\u00a0It was the next day that we squeezed the lemons, added a little sugar, and made that lemonade.<\/p>\n
We not only had Tuesdays with Morrie<\/em> booked starring Jamie Farr, but had sold tickets and even promoted the show with a community book read and panel discussion.\u00a0The panel discussion of the book read was very enlightening for those who attended, but little did we know there were going to be problems with the show.<\/p>\n To review, Tuesdays with Morrie<\/em> is a book written by Detroit radio broadcaster and author Mitch Albom.\u00a0It is a very good and inspirational book.\u00a0I was excited to bring the stage play of that book for our audience to enjoy.\u00a0A real bonus, I felt, was that the lead character was going to be TV star and Toledo native Jamie Farr.\u00a0Most everyone knows Jamie Farr from his portrayal of the character Klinger from one of TV\u2019s longest running and most successful TV shows of all-time: M*A*S*H* (this was when a man dressing like a woman was still funny).<\/p>\n Farr had performed this stage adaptation of this best-selling book a few years back and toured Canada.\u00a0The co-star was David Keeley and the director, Ron Ulrich, who are both Canadians.\u00a0The U.S. producer of this show was a man named Bill Rogers.\u00a0They were all planning to meet in Minnesota and start rehearsals for a 40-performance run of the show\u00a0across the United States.<\/p>\n In advance of this U.S. tour, Farr had appeared on several TV shows and did interviews to promote it.\u00a0Unfortunately, he discovered to his dismay that director Ron Ulrich and co-star David Keeley were never confirmed when he arrived for rehearsals in Rochester, Minnesota, on September 3.\u00a0Farr and his agent learned that Producer Bill Rogers applied for work visas at such a late date that it would be impossible for the two Canadians to get to the U.S. in time for rehearsals or the show\u2019s debut on September 25.<\/p>\n Farr had in his contract that he would only work with Keeley on stage since they had worked together in Canada and felt very comfortable on stage with each other.\u00a0Based on this, Farr reluctantly had his agent pull him for the production.\u00a0As they say, \u201cthat\u2019s show biz!\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Farr\u2019s intention was not to disappoint his fans, but felt he had no choice at this late date.<\/p>\n I found out about all of this just last week.\u00a0We were in the same boat as 40 other presenters across the U.S.\u00a0Venues were hastily looking for replacement shows they felt would work for their audiences.\u00a0\u00a0As you can imagine, one of the shows was going to be at the Stranahan Theater in Toledo, Farr\u2019s hometown.\u00a0\u00a0We were going to be the next day because it made excellent routing.<\/p>\n With the many connections Jamie Farr has in Toledo, he agreed to fly into Toledo regardless and do \u201cAn Evening with Jamie Farr,\u201d as he especially didn\u2019t want his hometown left high and dry.\u00a0I found out about this and got hold of Jamie\u2019s agent to inquire if Jamie would agree to travel an hour and 40 minutes south and repeat that show as \u201cAn Afternoon with Jamie Farr\u201d at the Niswonger.<\/p>\n After some discussion, Farr agreed to make a weekend of it and include us in the two-day mini-tour.\u00a0\u00a0In this show, Farr will be joined by Lee Conklin, co-news anchor of Toledo\u2019s WTVG Channel 13.\u00a0I understand that Conklin and Farr are friends and work together very well.\u00a0We will have our stage decked out in a nice set while the two of them discuss Farr\u2019s career in cinema and TV and show rare pictures and clips of M*A*S*H*, giving hilarious and entertaining insight into this long-running TV show.<\/p>\n I feel very fortunate as there are 38 other venues throughout the country who are still trying to fill the void of Tuesdays with Morrie<\/em>.\u00a0Farr stated he is deeply disappointed he will not be able to be a part of Tuesdays with Morrie<\/em>, but is very excited to meet the Toledo and Van Wert audiences and share lots of good laughs with all of us.\u00a0At the end, he will even take questions from the audience.\u00a0So get ready to have your questions for Jamie.\u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m sure his years with Alan Alda, Harry Morgan, McLean Stevenson, Wayne Rogers, and so many more will have Jamie filled with entertaining stories of his time at the 4077th.\u00a0I\u2019m also sure Jamie will enjoy seeing William Christopher\u2019s (Father Mulcahy) picture on our Green Room wall.\u00a0\u00a0Christopher starred in one of our \u201cChurch Basement Ladies\u201d shows a few years back.<\/p>\n If you have tickets for Tuesdays with Morrie<\/em> starring Jamie Farr, they will be honored for this new show.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s the same date and same time.\u00a0I hope you can join us Sunday, October 8, at 3 p.m., as we make lemonade out of lemons with \u201cAn Afternoon with Jamie Farr!\u201d<\/p>\n FIN\u00c9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" You know the adage, \u201cWhen you\u2019re served lemons, make lemonade.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Last week at this time, I wanted to share this information with you, however, I was scurrying to find some lemonade!\u00a0\u00a0It was the next day that we squeezed the lemons, added a little sugar, and made that lemonade. We not only had Tuesdays with Morrie booked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-21 23:08:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93563"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93563\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}