Damsels in Distress, Dastardly Deceits — It’s Showtime!

It’s that time of year again. No, not income tax time. It’s time for Santa Clara’s annual evening of melodrama and variety acts that is known hereabouts as Showtime.

On Sat. March 1, the Santa Clara Women’s League raises the curtain on the 41st Showtime with an original Cleo Stuckrath melodrama, The Saga of the Sarsaparilla Saloon — or — The Tale of the Tainted Tonic. The Santa Clara Women’s League continues to produce the event, running the silent auction, raffle and refreshments under the able management of Emily Adorable.

The late Cleo Stuckrath was the mother of Showtime; and for many years, its producer, playwright, director, costumer, props manager, stage manager and principal promoter. Like Beyonce, Cleo was such a personage — known for her community activism and “Cleo’s Corner” newspaper column* — that she only needed one name.

Showtime was Cleo’s answer to 1979’s Proposition 13, California’s property tax reduction law that had the side effect of extinguishing funding for senior health services. Since the first Showtime in 1982, the annual entertainment has raised hundreds of thousands in funding for health services at the Santa Clara Senior Center.

In 2007, Cleo turned over the Showtime reins to longtime Showtimers Rick Mauck and Robin Burdick, who became the melodrama’s producer in 2022. Last year, Burdick was joined by assistant producer Janae Cubiero, another Showtime regular.

Sarsaparilla Saloon tells the story of two ingénues — Goldie Guggenheimer and Daisy Duncan — whom their ambitious mammas want to marry off to the richest men in town. These suitors are — as you might guess —  the malevolent Blackheart brothers who scheme to make the girls theirs by fixing the Box Social.

The girls, naturally, have their eyes fixed on more appealing masculine horizons, Dubar Goolavacki and Johnny Applegate, and cook up their own scheme to outsmart the villains.

The Blackheart Brothers are — no surprise — up to no good. As soon as they appeared on the scene, gold disappeared from the mines and everyone in town went broke.

With economic ruin bearing down on the town, it looks like the girls might be forced into the arms of the Blackhearts. But, as always in Showtime, if not in real life, the crooks get their just rewards in time to avert catastrophe, and the two happy couples plight their troths.

This year, Director Burdick will appear on stage as the killjoy Deaconess Duncan, bane to young lovers.

“In 1992, I played Daisy Duncan – the daughter of the character I’m playing this year,” said Burdick. “It’s a little crazy.”

A supporting role is played by the nerve-calming 180-proof Fannie Fenwick’s Famous Female Tonic (practice saying this; there will be a test). Fannie’s Famous is sold in the Guggenheim General Store, while only non-alcoholic Sarsaparilla is sold at Miss Kitty’s saloon, which leads to comic consequences.

In its recent history, Showtime has faced its own perils. First a city manager who wanted to charge the Women’s League private rental rates to put on Showtime, and then the COVID pandemic. COVID shut down the 2020 show on opening night, but there are no troupers like Showtime troupers, and Showtime returned in 2023.

The curtain rises for Sarsaparilla on Saturday, March 1, 2025 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, March 2, 2025 at 2 p.m. at the Community Recreation Center, 969 Kiely Blvd. Santa Clara. Doors open 90 minutes before curtain time.

Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for children, and there’s a $25 family package for 2 adults and 2 children. You can buy tickets at SantaClaraWomensLeague.org or at the door.

Here’s the program from the 1984 Showtime production. You’ll see plenty of familiar names. [Showtine 1984 Program-1st Showtime 1984 B&W]

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ve been in Showtime since 2006 and freely confess a bias in favor of this delightful, old-fashioned community event. Being part of the show is an honor.

*Cleo’s Corner ran in the Santa Clara Weekly as well as its predecessors the Santa Clara Journal, the Santa Clara American and the Santa Clara Valley Weekly. Cleo was particularly adept at persuading public officials to be in Showtime. She told me that the secret of her success was to “put everyone’s name in the newspaper.”

**Box socials are fundraisers where picnic boxes, decorated and donated by young women, are bid on by young men who get to enjoy the picnic with the preparer.