Veterans Day weekend will be filled with special entertainment to mark the holiday in The Villages. Here are some highlights:
“USO: Celebrating 75 Years of Entertainment” will be held Saturday, Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. in Savannah Center.
Some of the best known local performers will appear, including: Carolyn Hoffman, Bill Davis, Bill Krone, Bob Stehman, Bonnie Williams, Bruce and Lynne Greenberger, Chris and Gillian Bolus and Gary Chubeck.
Also in the show are Jan Lavin, Janice Swartz, Jim Caisse, Phil Caltabellotta, The Skipper and Sally Spieth.
They will pay tribute to such musical acts as: Bob Hope, Andrew Sisters, Marlene Dietrich, Steve and Eydie, Frank and Nancy Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Ethel Merman, Roberta Flack and the Beatles.
Also, the show will be led by a Veterans Honor Guard, and also the Sounds of Scotland Bagpiper Group.
It’s the first major show for Smash Productions, a musical theater company founded by Carolyn Hoffman and Susan Sirmai Feinberg.
Both have strong feelings for the USO and the military. Hoffman’s son is in the Army and served in Iraq. Feinberg’s parents were liberated by Allied Forces during World War II. Feinberg’s husband has served as a Guardian on two Villages Honor Flights.
Proceeds will benefit Villages Honor Flight, and the USO of Central Florida.
Billie Thatcher will also feature patriotic music in, “The Second Annual Red, White and Blue Revue,” Saturday, Nov. 12 at 7 p.m. in Eisenhower Recreation Center.
Thatcher is one of the most popular performers in The Villages and will be singing an American songbook from the 1940s to the ‘70s.
Money raised will benefit The Infant and Toddler Pantry of the Congregational Church, and also the Martin Luther King Scholarship Fund.
Brothers In Song will present “A Musical Tribute To Our Veterans,” Friday, Nov. 11 at 6 p.m. in the Hope Lutheran Church, 250 Avenida Los Angelos, in The Villages.
Twenty-five of the 60 chorus members are veterans.
In addition to songs by the chorus, there will be inspirational music from a jazz trio led by Dave Flanigan, and also a men’s quartet. Ben Osborne is director of the chorus and Dave Flanigan is accompanist.
If you like the TV series, “The Golden Girls,” you will enjoy “The Golden Girls Move to The Villages,” Friday and Saturday, Nov. 11-12 at 7 p.m. in the Rohan Recreation Center. It’s a spoof of the old TV show, with a Villages’ twist.
Finally, on Sunday, Nov. 13, singer Matt Dusk will have Fernando Varela as a special guest for shows at 5 and 8 p.m. in the Savannah Center.
Dusk is a contemporary singer who brings a fresh sound to standards by singers such as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Bobby Darin.
