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The Tony Award-winning musical, Mel Brooks’s The Producers, opens at the Hardin County Playhouse on Friday.

The Producers is a Broadway musical based on the 1960’s Mel Brooks movie of the same name. Ron Blair, who plays Max Bialystock in the production, says that the show is hilarious.

“This is going to be one of the funniest shows the Hardin County Playhouse has ever done in its 55-year history,” Blair said. “It’s just an incredible show, it’s incredibly clever, and the songs are absolutely phenomenal.”

The story revolves around Bialystock and Leo Blum, played by Jackson Smith, who want to produce a Broadway flop in order to fleece investors, but of course things go awry, creating comedy gold. The songs are one of the things that drew Blair to the project.

“More than anything, the songs that Bialystock sings, they’re just fun,” Blair said. “As a performer, I have a really good time with them. They’re very difficult songs, and that probably lends itself to my enjoyment of them because they were a challenge, so yeah, that really drew me to it, and just the character playing a con man, a funny con man, I have a lot of great bits in the show.”

The Hardin County Playhouse is a non-profit organization that has been producing award-winning theatrical entertainment for 55 years with a goal of fostering local talent in all areas having to do with theatre.

“We have a focus on educating young performers and artists in every aspect of theatre, which can include lighting design or set design, painting sets, costuming,” Blair said. “There are so many jobs within the theatre, and we try to have all of those represented whenever we do shows.”
The Producers is not for children under 15. It opens Friday at 7:00 p.m. and runs for two weekends at the ECTC Science Building auditorium. For more information and to get tickets, go to www.hardincountyplayhouse.com.

Silverleaf Sexual Trauma Recovery Services Executive Director Dr. Jillian Carden says the organization provides multiple services to any individual in the Lincoln Trail Area Development District who has experienced sexual violence at some point in their life.

“A 24-hour crisis line, hospital response, we provide advocacy and legal advocacy for them where we assist victims who may be going through the legal or court process, we offer therapy services, and we offer prevention and education,” Carden said.

Carden provided an update on the organization to the Elizabethtown City Council during their work session Monday. Carden recounted services provided in 2024, with 39 percent of clients coming from Hardin County.

“So in that year we saw 2,251 individual unduplicated clients in our eight-county service area, and provided over 2,000 therapy sessions, 462 forensic interviews, 625 crisis services,” Carden said.

Carden said support from Elizabethtown has helped the organization triple in size and take on an 144 percent increase in clients served in the last five years. That support allows for the expansion of programs such as the Prevention and Education Team, which connected with more than 44,000 participants in 2024.

“That’s going to include little bitties for preschool where we have a puppet (his name’s Terry) with a coloring book, all the way up through college, professionals, and community members,” Carden said.

More information on Silverleaf’s services is available via their website, and their Crisis Support Line can be reached 24/7 by calling 270-234-9236.