Follies time moves up to 7:30 p.m.

Mustang Follies fans take note: The annual talent show anchoring the mid-week lineup for Lovell Mustang Days for decades will start a half hour earlier this year.

For many years, the curtain opened for the Follies at 8 p.m. at the Hyart Theatre. This year, however, the Follies will be staged at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, June 26 and 27, with the Dollies of the Follies and the Mustang Band kicking things off in front of the theater at 6:30 p.m. Doors for the show will also open at 6:30.

Following the overall theme for Mustang Days, Let the Games Begin! will be the theme of this year’s Follies, and director Tianne Samson said the program will be loosely based on the Hunger Games movies.

In the Hunger Games, names of contestants are drawn out of a bowl, Samson said, and that process will be portrayed in the Follies by hosts Renae Ball, who will play Effie Trinket, and Dr. Michael Hill, who will play Caesar Flickerman. And like the Hunger Games, performers will be interviewed by Flickerman after each act.

“Some of the acts use costumes and music from the Hunger Games, but the goal is to show different talents and acts,” Samson said.

The Dollies of the Follies and Mustang Band will launch the program, as per tradition, and the Bench Dancers will close the show. The Rockettes will return this year, as well.

Other performers or acts will be two lip sync battles, the Lovell Dance Academy, the Absaroka Mountain Thunder cloggers, a teacher and staff dance by personnel from School District No. 2, a comedy dance act by Joseph Shumway and crew, the Velvet Thunder Band from Rocky Mountain High School, Conner Mayes singing an original song and a little boys group singing a 1990s boy band hit.

Natalie Wardell and Tara Jones are assisting Samson this year.