MIDDLEPORT — “Showboat’s a Comin” is the theme of the Riverbend Arts Council’s annual talent revue to be presented at 7:30 p.m. Friday.

Directed by Dixie Sayre and Dave Warner, the show is a take-off on an old time minstrel show, so popular in the Bend area for many years. Warner takes the role of interlocutor for the interplay between the endmen, Steve Musser, Brian Howard, John Musser and Bob Buck who enter the auditorium to the theme song of “I’d Rather See a Minstrel Show.”

The two-act show will include a blacklight number “The Banjo Drag” featuring dancers, Julie Howard, Junie Maynard, Michelle Evans and Paulette Harrison.

Dixie Sayre will sing “Second Hand Rose” with Donna Wilson taking the role of a bag lady doing “The Impossible Dream.” There will be song dance routine by Bob and Debbie Buck to “By the Sea” and a vocal by Jeannie Owen “In My Daughter’s Eyes” with Julie and Claire Howard dancing. The first half of the show will close with two numbers by the Gallia-Meigs Performing Arts dancers to “Gift of a Friend” and “Double Dutch Bus.”

The Performing Arts dancers will return to the stage to open the second half of the show. A chorus composed of Frances Gibson, Jill Johnson, Linda Mayer, Diane Hawley, Dottie Musser, Carolyn Thomas, Becky DePoy and Judy Sisson will sing “Shenandoah.”

Brian Howard will do “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables,” and Maddison and Marlee Maynard will perform to “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.”

“This is My Country” and “God Bless America” by the chorus and cast will conclude the 2009 talent revue.

Advance tickets at $5 are available at Clark’s Jewelry Store in Pomeroy, and King Hardware in Middleport. Tickets at the door are $7 for adults an $5 for children.