The Barn Theatre in Augusta, Mich., opened its 66^th season Tuesday evening with a fast-paced production of “The Fox on The Fairway,” a skewed look at man’s favorite sport — golf, of course (what did you think?!).

Golf, along with sex and mixed messages, is the subject of the newest offering from playwright Ken Ludwig whose other farcical targets include opera (“Lend Me A Tenor”), theater (“Moon Over Buffalo”) and cross-dressing (“Leading Ladies”).

There is no actual animal running amok on the greens, instead the title alludes to the setting, the Tap Room of the Quail Valley Country Club, where the club’s annual golf tournament with deadly rivals— the Crouching Squirrel Golf and Racquet Club — is about to get underway.

Before the championship is decided, Ludwig has brought out all the tricks in his comedy bag, excepting mistaken identity. In “Fox,” everyone knows who he or she is supposed to be, excluding one final shot out of the rough.

Next to Neil Simon, Ken Ludwig may be the most prolific writer of comedies in this generation. Of the six which have had Broadway runs, the best known (and probably the best) is “Lend Me A Tenor,” a fast-paced farce which opened Friday evening at the Bristol Opera House.

I have to admit I have seen at least five different productions of this play and laughed as hard at this last as I did at the first.

The Elkhart Civic Theatre production, directed by Rick Ellis, starts off in high gear and continues from there in fast forward. In the cast are several seasoned community theater veterans as well as a couple of fledgling performers. Here the old and the new work well together.

Because it is a farce, don’t expect any polished quips or sharp repartee. It’s mistaken identities taken (literally) to the Max and one double entendre after another, all punctuated with lightening fast exits and entrances made through incredibly sturdy doors which, when slammed shut, stay shut, no mean feat in this increasingly frantic plot.

At the risk of repeating myself, I will say again that I go to EVERY theatrical production, professional or amateur, hoping to be pleasantly surprised. Most the time, I am. Friday evening, I was not.

It was opening night for the South Bend Civic Theatre production of “Gypsy,” the much-revived musical based on the memoirs of actress/author/ecdysiast (aka stripper) famous in the 1930s and ‘40s as Gypsy Rose Lee.

First on Broadway in 1958, the Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim, Arthur Laurents work starred Ethel Merman as the prototype stage mother who drove her children to stardom whether they wanted it or not. “Gypsy” has returned to Broadway four times since the original, with the role of Mama Rose interpreted by Tyne Daly, Angela Lansbury, Bernadette Peters and Patti Lupone. The 1962 film miscast Rosalind Russell as the dragon matriarch and Bette Midler was equally unsuitable in the 1993 TV production.

It is a story of the frequently seamier side of show biz, which should by no means be a signal to present a shabby, shoddy or embarrassingly unready production. Unfortunately, that is what greeted the opening night audience.

In 1931, British actor Colin Clive uttered the immortal words “It’s Alive” and brought to life one of the world’s best-known monsters in the now-classic horror film “Frankenstein.”

Actually, as Dr. Henry Frankenstein, Clive uttered those words eight times —and although he was the first, he certainly has not been the last.

The movie was based on the 1818 book by Mary Shelley. It brought fame and a life-long association, wanted or not, to actor Boris Karloff, who created The Monster (which was NOT named Frankenstein).

In the decades since, countless “sequels” and “re-imagined” versions of the original have been filmed, with probably the best known being “Young Frankenstein,” by Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder, which put a wildly comic face on the story and its characters.

Never one to let sleeping monsters lie, Brooks wrote music and lyrics and teamed with Thomas Meehan on the book to turn the 1974 movie into a theatrical musical. It came to Broadway in 2007 and hit the road in 2009.