Alaska News

Slideshow: 'Déjà Vu All Over Again in Chicken, Alaska,' the Fur Rondy Melodrama

"Déjà Vu All Over Again in Chicken, Alaska" is being billed as the 25th anniversary of the Fur Rondy Melodrama. Dennis Sullivan, who plays the villainous Throckmorton Dirtbag, has been in 24 of them.

"I was working in real estate when one of my colleagues asked if I wanted to be in a show with 65 women," he recalled at a rehearsal this week. "That sounded like a good deal to me."

"I've been the villain for the past 15 years," he added between practicing his dark "Bwa-ha-ha" laugh and adjusting his sinister top hat. "My first part was as Pious Pete the Preacher. I went downhill quickly, landed at the bottom and stayed there."

A quarter century may sound like a long time, but a melodrama has been part of the Rondy roundup for many years more. In fact, stock melodrama productions appear to have been part of the Anchorage scene since before the annual winter celebration started, probably as far back as tent city days.

Read more: Fur Rondy Melodrama celebrates 25 years of villains, damsels and preposterous puns

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