NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Somewhere around spotlights and curtains, popcorn and flashing lights, you will find Chris MacPherson.
"It's a happy stress to have," he nodded.
These days in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, MacPherson plays the sheriff in the Hatfield and McCoy Dinner Feud. In the past, he's played roles in neighboring Gatlinburg, like at Ripley's Haunted Adventure.
"I was the half torso, zombie thing that'd be leaning forward and drumming up business," MacPherson remembered.
Hey. That's range.
For MacPherson, there really was something special about a certain group of people who performed at a certain place; The Sweet Fanny Adams Theatre in downtown Gatlinburg.
The influences on what they did there were from way back. It was part old fashioned British music hall, part vaudeville. It was a love letter to stages long ago.
"Song. Dance. Comedy. Clowning. Magic," MacPherson listed. "It's something right after another."
For MacPherson, this place was the family story.
MacPherson's parents, Don and Pat MacPherson, had been performers all over the world when they moved to the Great Smoky Mountains. They launched their Sweet Fanny Adams Theatre in 1977.
"From an early age, I'd have to tie my dad into a coconut bra, and I turned out totally normal and fine!" MacPherson smiled.
For MacPherson, that Sweet Fanny Adams Theatre was a constant presence through whatever life brought.
"That was originally my grandparents' house," MacPherson said of the house that was his longtime home. "I bought it off of my mother, and then lost it in the wildfire."
That was 2016. We're just weeks from this being ten years ago. The wildfires in Gatlinburg took the lives of 14 people and destroyed nearly 2,500 buildings and homes.
Even without his home, there was MacPherson still selling tickets and nightly performing for crowds at his family's Sweet Fanny Adams Theatre.
"The theater was my bright side," he remembered. "You always have to look on the bright side of life."
COVID brought about the closure of the Sweet Fanny Adams Theatre building.
"We were a small, intimate theater," MacPherson said. "We had about 165 seats. When we started doing social distancing, we'd only have 30 people in the audience. We just couldn't keep going."
The family's old theater building itself is now other businesses. Still, MacPherson is so proud of the shows he and his parents wrote in their life up in the mountains.
"We lost dad in 2010 and mom in 2022," MacPherson said. "I always wanted to start up the theater again, sometime somewhere."
MacPherson called up the old crew for a series of Sweet Fanny Adams reunion shows running through September and October. Magician Terry Evanswood is opening his Evanswood Magic Theatre in Pigeon Forge for the shows.
A crowd gathered outside on opening night. There was something I found about the people waiting to go inside. Every one of them knew MacPherson's story; the 2016 wildfire, the loss of the theater during COVID. For them, MacPherson's story is resilience.
A couple who drove to opening night from Michigan summed it up well.
"Life will change, and life will get better."
For the first time in little while, a Sweet Fanny Adams Theatre Show was part of the night in Sevier County. It was happening almost 50 years after Don and Pat MacPherson started something special.
"I think they would be smiling, and they'd love what we're doing," MacPherson said of his parents. "I've done everything I could to keep the show going, and it's helped me just with life in general."
The run of reunion shows is currently sold out, but MacPherson said there's talk of extending the run and doing future shows.
Do you have a positive, good news story? You can email me at forrest.sanders@newschannel5.com.
Every night, Forrest Sanders brings us stories showcasing the best of humanity. This story profiles, perhaps, Tennessee's most eccentric resident who made an impact on an aspiring journalist. I'm always in awe of Forrest's storytelling; I truly appreciated his vulnerability with this one.
- Carrie Sharp
