By Craig Horleman

In real life, Anthony and Eddie Edwards are identical twins. On stage, they couldn’t look more different.

Known as The Edwards Twins, they will present a show entitled “A Night with the Stars” Saturday night at the Smyrna Opera House. Looking and sounding exactly like the celebrities, the two portray entertainers such as Sonny & Cher, Elton John, Neil Diamond, Lady Gaga, Celine Dion, Rod Stewart, Bette Midler, Barbra Streisand, Andrea Bocelli and more.

Anthony does all of the male parts and Eddie does the female artists.

“It’s just a whirlwind of all sorts of celebrities. Plus there’s a section where I do like 20 different voices without the makeup and the wigs. I just do the voices. Then I do a Terry Fador (ventriloquism) type of thing. It really is a variety Vegas show,” Anthony Edwards said by phone Wednesday afternoon from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where the two were entertaining.

The Edwards Twins have been performing together for 35 years. Separately, they have been on stage for longer than that. They were brought together after legendary actress and comedian Carol Burnett saw them in separate shows and suggested they join forces.

“I was in Toronto and Carol Burnett, came to see the show and I came out and impersonated Carol for Carol. We then became very good friends. Well unbeknown to her, she went to go see (the female impersonation show) “La Cage Aux Follies” in LA and she saw Eddie,” Mr. Edwards said.

“She was just coming back with her comeback show ‘Carol and Company’. She had asked Eddie to be on the premiere of that show with her and they became very good friends and she said, ‘Listen, what are you guys doing apart?’ She said ‘This is crazy. You need to go ahead and put a show together with the both of you. A pair of identical twins who look and sound like all these people. This would be the hit of the United States. You really need to do it.’ And that’s how we formed The Edwards Twins.”

Together they have toured the country extensively and have played internationally as well. They are currently on a tour that will take them to 90 cities over the next 120 days and will most likely be extending it further.

They have been seen on “The Tonight Show,” “Entertainment Tonight” “Today,” “Ellen” and the Netflix comedy “The Kominsky Method” with Michael Douglas and Alan Arkin.

As children, they were always interested in show business. Living in Burbank, California, they would go over to NBC Studios and check out the TV shows being filmed.

“We were there from three o’clock on. School would let out at 2:40. We went to Jordan Junior High, which is right in Burbank and then we would walk up to NBC Studios and from 3 to usually about 7 or 8, we would see all the shows. We would see ‘The Hollywood Squares’. We would see all the game shows. We would see ‘The Tonight Show.’ We would see all that stuff plus our Uncle Jack worked for NBC. He worked for (producer) George Slaughter and he was the announcer on ‘The Sonny and Cher Show’,” Anthony Edwards said.

“At that time, I think he was doing ‘Real People’ so we got to access that backstage and all that. So that’s where we learned about etiquette, talking to celebrities and all this stuff. It was just a really great, great time.”

Anthony said they won’t do a celebrity on stage unless they can get the look and sound of him or her exactly correct. There is no lip-synching in the show. Everything is done live.

“We take our impressions very seriously and we create the illusion that the celebrities are there. We don’t do characterizations. I think the audience can tell a well-polished act from an act that’s just mediocre. It’s because you know we put so much money and time into our product,” he said.

“That’s the reason why we have people paying (money) for tickets because it is a quality show and the people that have seen it, they come back over and over and over and they bring friends.”

Mr. Edwards said he has had to work on some impressions over time to get them right.

“Maybe 10 years ago when ‘The Jersey Boys’ were so huge. I wanted to put together Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. And the problem was is because I had silicone implants in my face in order to do Elton John and my other characters to fill out my face, my face was too full to do Frankie Valli and yet I nailed the voice perfectly,” he said.

“I couldn’t get the look down from the 60s and so I had to ditch that character. Well later on I thought ‘Why don’t you do Frankie Valli from his solo career, from the Grease period? All his hits. He had a lot more hits from there.’ So I said I’m going to try it for a season, see how it works I hit a home run with it. People just went nuts.”

The same goes for Tom Jones.

“I couldn’t get the look down and then just recently, I had my hairstylist and makeup person that helps me with a lot of stuff come in and we totally redid the whole look. So we’ve been doing that on the road in certain places and people say it’s one of the best characters they have ever seen,” he said.

Mr. Edwards says bringing the show from town to town is a huge undertaking.

“We have a 10-foot box truck. We have a six-passenger RV. We have a truck. We have two vans. People think that we just show up and do the show — just Eddie and I — but no, there’s a lot of work.” he said.

If you miss The Edwards Twins this time around, they will be bringing their holiday show back to the Smyrna Opera House on Dec. 18.

Doors open at 6:45 p.m. for Saturday’s 7:30 performance. A limited amount of general admission tickets are still available by visiting here, calling 653-4236 or visiting the box office at 7 W. South St.

Folk Hero Open Mic

On Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Delaware Friends of Folk will present their monthly coffee house at The Underground on the ground floor of the DuPont College Center, 120 N. State St., Dover.

This event marks the second Open Mic of the 15th annual Folk Hero contest. At this Open Mic, three finalists will be selected from all who compete. Along with the three finalists from the July Open Mic, the six overall finalists will then have the opportunity to perform on the main stage of the Delmarva Folk Festival Oct 1.

The winning performer, as determined by an audience vote, will be dubbed the 2021 Delmarva Folk Hero and will open the festival on the main stage on Saturday, Oct.2 The prize package also includes

• $100 cash

• $50 music store gift card

• $100 to host next year’s Folk Hero Finals

Admission is $5 for members of Delaware Friends of Folk, $7 for non-members, teens are half-price, and those 12 and under are admitted free. There is no admission fee for performers. Fresh-brewed coffee, baked cookies, and other snacks will be available.

Chicago tribute

Beginnings: A Celebration of the Music of Chicago will play the Milton Theatre Sunday at 3 and 8 p.m.

The band consists of professional musicians (and a Grammy nominee) from across the country with performance credits including Billy Joel’s “Movin’ Out”, Aretha Franklin, The Temptations, and many others.

Tickets are available for purchase online  or call the box office at 302-684-3038 for assistance.

The Milton Theatre is at 110 Union St.

Museum money

When Delaware bond money was allocated in early July, Delaware Agricultural Museum Director Carolyn Claypoole of Lewes was overjoyed to hear that the museum would receive $1.6 million for infrastructure improvements including electrical upgrades and energy-efficient lighting.

“We have continued to receive extraordinary state-wide legislative support and this generous grant is but one example of that support”, Ms. Claypoole said.

She went on to say that the funds will help further the progress being made in creating a model, multi-use facility with exhibits and educational programming that promotes and celebrates the importance of Delaware agriculture and Delaware’s rich rural history.

With a 38,000-square-foot main museum building and 22 buildings in the historic 1890s village, the infrastructure improvements will allow for expanded educational programming, new exhibits as well as an increased number of private and public events.

“The Agricultural Museum and Village is beloved by all who come here and we are working on new ways to share the experience and to broaden our reach within the state and region and now around the country through our state-of-the-art educational virtual learning field trips,” Ms. Claypoole said.

A key supporter of the private nonprofit museum, Sen. Colin Bonini, R-Dover, recently called the museum “…a true Delaware treasure and a significant educational and economic asset that thousands of Delaware school children visit.”

Work on the infrastructure upgrades at the Delaware Agricultural Museum in Dover will begin in the fall.

Director sought

Possum Point Players have put out a call for prospective directors who are interested in directing the 2022 fall production of “Calendar Girls.”

Director application forms are on Possums’ website, under the menu listing of All About PPP. There are forms for an experienced Possum Point Players director and for a first-time director. Applications will be accepted until Sept. 1.

Written by playwright Tim Firth, “Calendar Girls” is a comedy based on a true story of a group of women who choose to fund a local hospital memorial bench by posing for a nude calendar. The play is Mr. Firth’s stage version of the film of the same name that features Helen Mirren.

The script is available upon request. Contact Donna de Kuyper, Possum Point Players Director Selection for a script or information, donnadek@comcast.net.

Production dates are September 2022.

Now Showing

New this weekend in theaters is the animated film “Paw Patrol: The Movie”, the sci-fi film “Reminiscence” and the thriller “The Night House”