I thought I'd start a thread for discussions or questions about the famous show in Palo Duro Canyon. The main reason is that this year's show marks a change in the story line.

If you've been there before, you know that two of the main characters are the rancher Henry, and his wife, Anna. They were loosely based on Charles Goodnight, and his wife Mollie. This year, the show has changed the characters of Henry and Anna to Charles and Mollie. It will be interesting to see how they write that into the script, as "Henry" and Charles don't have the same views on progress, and given that two characters are now "real" people.

My feeling is that it will be a positive change to the show. The director, Dave Yirak, is an acquaintance, and he's improved the show a lot. First they got rid of the boring and interminable ballet-like dances. And they've made the brief appearance of the Indian characters a lot less 1960s Western.

Even when the show was hokey, it was a lot of fun. Should be a lot better these days.

The season has already started, here's an article on this, the 54th annual season:

http://www.canyonnews.com/texas-kicks-off-54th-season/

Web site for tickets and info

https://www.texas-show.com/

The ticket office is downtown on the square in Canyon. Come by there for tickets, lots of good dining there, good bookstore, more stuff coming all the time.

My fondest memory: My then seven year old son (class of '20) asking why the Indians were riding the ranchers' horses from the last scene. Only had two real choices to give him an immediate answer. I chose the non-politically correct and probably more historically accurate answer and let him continue to think it was real.

I'm a little sad about the removal of "West Texas Rain", that was my favorite tune.

But, my daughter is in the production this year, so there's a little Aggie connection for anyone who comes. I'm going to watch her first week on this week back stage, and will be out there several times this summer.

The fireworks are even bigger this year, too.

I went out to see my daughter on Wednesday.

The change is definitely noticeable if you are pretty familiar with the script. I was expecting and ready for the change of name, and I like that shift towards historical accuracy.

What I didn't realize is that it is more than just a change in name for the character, but they made some other shifts in the script that have the overall impact of shifting the male lead from Calvin Armstrong to Charles Goodnight. I do believe that was probably intentional.

I don't think it negatively impacts the entertainment value of the show, it is as good as always.