by Ed Townley of John Garcia's The Column

I was happy to experience everything about this production.

We are living in challenging times. News to you? I didn't think so. If you find yourself just a tad overwhelmed by the eagerness with which the media have shifted from operating on scandal and outrage to the new fuel of panic and despair, I have the perfect prescription. Get tickets – immediately, because both seats and performances are limited – to spend an evening with the talented and passionate company of Big River, the musical version of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn being presented through March 15 by the Collin Theatre Center in the John Anthony Theatre at Collin College. Just do it! You can thank me later.

Big River – with a book by William Hauptman and music and lyrics by Roger Miller (yes, that's Roger `King of the Road' Miller) – won't solve your problems. Neither will it whisk you away to a make-believe world where problems don't exist. It will, however, remind us all that problems of economic and social upheaval are nothing new; we've faced them before. People have behaved cruelly and thoughtlessly, have grasped for their own piece of the pie at the expense of others, have allowed the fear-based opinions of society to block their own inner decency. At the same time, in ways inextricably linked with those shadow energies, people have chafed at limits, cared about others, broken free of society's rigid standards – and lived rich, joyful lives in the process.

Huckleberry Finn has not endured as a classic of world literature simply because of its surface story of a restless boy and a runaway slave and the picaresque adventures they share while riding a raft down the great Mississippi River in the mid-19th century. On that level alone, this production of Big River is entertaining and lively. But Mark Twain himself – in a truly wonderful performance by Craig `Yo' Erickson – is on hand throughout the evening to make sure we don't lose sight of the bigger picture.

I think the change in title from Huckleberry Finn to Big River is significant. So is the fact that so many of the songs in the lively and evocative score have to do with elements of nature: "Waitin' for the Light," "Muddy Water," "River in the Rain," "When the Sun Goes Down in the South." When Huck and Jim, the runaway slave, contemplate their socially unacceptable friendship, they sing of their awareness that "I see the same stars through my eyes that you see through yours." It's in embracing the rhythms of nature that manmade stupidity can be corrected. And when Huck faces the dilemma of his shame over what people would say about his support of a runaway slave versus his own feelings of friendship and respect for Jim, it's the gospel-tinged "How Blest We Are" and "Waitin' for the Light" that offer a sense of healing that transcends even nature.

Well, Mr. Twain warns us at the very outset – as he did in a foreword to the novel -- against looking for a plot or a moral in the events he's about to unfold, so I'll stop now before I get shot. (Even from the distance of a century and a half, those piercing eyes mean business.) What's really important here is that this production of Big River is exciting and haunting and thrillingly acted and sung, from the smallest of roles to the central characters.

Absolutely every member of the cast -- and the Big River Band, and the designers, and director Mark Mullino and choreographer Paula Morelan – deserves to be singled out and congratulated. I can only mention a few. Dane Hoffman as the shyster King is the embodiment of smug, and Corey Cleary-Stoner as his accomplice in crime, the self-styled Duke, is so manic and pleased with himself in his fleecing of rubes and butchering of Shakespeare that he only occasionally allows his feet to touch the floor. Trey Tolleson is funny and believable as Tom Sawyer, determined to find the most dramatic and complicated way out of even simple situations. Sandy Pruitt and Traci Lee sing beautifully and act passionately as the mother and daughter slaves about to be sold and separated. Indeed, the depiction of slavery throughout goes far deeper than a sort of musical comedy level of shocked disapproval, to a real sense of the pain, suffering and humiliation it produced. Nice work, all around.

Which brings us to the two central characters, who carry the show simply because they spend so much of it alone on stage, sharing a raft on a flowing river that comes to seem every bit as real as the tangible piers and pilings that represent the shore. Khalil Willis as Jim is an anchor of dignity and patience, but with a sense of frustration and rage that cannot always stay hidden. And two minutes into the show you realize that Aaron Slaughter is exactly who – and how – Huck Finn is and was. Cheerful, impetuous, with a heart the size of the river itself, he commands the stage with talent, focus and an energy that never flags. Both Willis and Slaughter have fine voices, and when they blend together on "River in the Rain" and "Worlds Apart," a collective shiver moves through the entire audience.

Yes, the second act is too long and plot-heavy, and not all the songs are memorable or integral to the plot (oops – sorry, Mr. Twain). But with a cast this gifted, I'm happy to hear them anyway. In fact, I was happy to experience everything about this production. So will you be. Go.

Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn runs through March 15. Purchase tickets online or by calling 972-881-5809.

What do you think?