Lawson Taitte

FORT WORTH – Texas loves its Tuna – even when the denizens of the fictional West Texas town abandon the state altogether.

Casa Mañana brought Greater Tuna's latest sequel, Tuna Does Vegas, to Bass Performance Hall on Tuesday for its North Texas premiere. As Joe Sears and Jaston Williams, the two actors who also wrote the show with Ed Howard, morphed into each of their beloved characters in turn, the audience clapped and cheered at each entrance.

Broadcaster Arles Struvie wooed hefty Bertha Bumiller in a previous installment. Now they're off to Vegas to renew their wedding vows – and to get away from all the snoops in Tuna. As Bertha worries whether to bring her bathing suit, everybody else in town decides to go along. At the end of the first act, the plane carrying the quarreling Pearl Burras and Vera Carp has just touched down in Nevada.

If Tuna Does Vegas has a major flaw, it's that the new Vegas characters can't compete with the old favorites for vivid eccentricity. The exception is the Hula Chateau's manager, Anna Conda, played by Mr. Williams as a kind of Carol Channing manqué. Ana hires Tuna Little Theatre director Joe Bob to run the hotel's low-rent nightclub show. Of course he hires Tastee Kreme waitresses Inita and Helen, but life upon the wicked stage ain't nothin' what a girl supposes.

Costume designer Linda Fisher's wild duds contribute a great deal of the fun. I wouldn't give her jokes away any more than I would the writer-performers'. Suffice it to say, this fourth Tuna show won't disappoint fans, though with all the in-jokes it might merely confuse newcomers.