Fee Hedrick Family Entertainment Group

By J.J. Kindred as seen in the Mountain Press

PIGEON FORGE - The Black Bear Jamboree has undergone some major changes with a new musical revue show for its sixth season.

The show features movie tunes from Hollywood, country music favorites, disco dance hits from the ’70s and a finale featuring patriotic and gospel songs.

There is also an enhanced stage, surround sound, new lighting and more than 250 costume changes.

A family of animatronic black bears watching Hollywood directors making a movie called “The Legend of the Black Bear Jamboree” is the show’s new storyline, featuring the main characters of Mr. Schlemielberg, a star Hollywood director (played by Pigeon Forge theater veteran Jimmy Bryant), and Dexter, the nerdy assistant director who aspires to be a star (played by longtime Dollywood performer Stacy Mitchell).

“Dexter is probably me in real life,” Mitchell said with a laugh. “I really snort when I laugh like he does, which is embarrassing. He’s a combination of Jerry Lewis and (Steve) Urkel (from “Family Matters”).”

A Knoxville native and University of Tennessee graduate, Mitchell performed at Dollywood for six years. He auditioned for season four of “American Idol” and made it to the Hollywood round before being eliminated in the third stage.

“That was a great experience,” he said.

He added that being able to sing gospel music during the show fulfilled his dreams. “It was a real blessing,” Mitchell said. “I’ll just continue to go wherever the Lord leads me.”

Bryant, who wrote and directed the Smoky Mountain Opry show at the former Governors Palace Theatre, said they went through six or seven scripts before finally settling on one.

“A lot of different hands were involved in this,” Bryant said. “I was just asked to play the director. It’s over the top and that’s how my role came in. I had no writership in this one.

“There’s a lot more acting involved in this,” he continued. “I’m not much of an actor so I have to pull deeper and let my inhibitions go and commit to it. I feel kind of foolish at times because I’ve never done a lot of acting.”

Bryant said the music variety will give audiences more to appreciate.

“It’s almost like a variety show,” he said. “This is based on the prior show, but we didn’t do ’70s music. I don’t think there’s anyone else in town doing ’70s. We’ve added more gospel to this show - we get a higher demand for it.”

Scot Tillery, the show’s general manager, said the new production has been fun.

“We had less than four months to do our first show,” he said, “but we took our time to make sure everything was okay. The response has been amazing. The other night we had three rounds of applause and a standing ovation after the final song. I think people will continue to enjoy themselves.”