T-R PHOTO BY ROBERT MAHARRY The cast of Marshalltown Community Theatre’s upcoming production of “Terms of Endearment” — front row, left to right, Lana Bradstream, Lydia Lillibridge and Tyler Lillibridge; back row, Josh Krough, Jeff Harris and Jenna Van Law — pose for a photo at the Miller Middle School auditorium on Monday night. The show will be performed a total of five times over the next two weekends.

After working off of a brand new script written by an Iowa playwright for its most recent show, “County Line Road,” Marshalltown Community Theatre will present a decidedly better-known and more mainstream offering over the next couple of weekends.

“Terms of Endearment,” which originated as a novel by the late Larry McMurtry published in 1975, is probably best remembered for its smash hit 1983 film adaptation that won five Academy Awards — Best Picture, Best Director for James L. Brooks, Best Actress for Shirley MacLaine as Aurora Greenway, Best Supporting Actor for Jack Nicholson as Garrett Breedlove and Best Adapted Screenplay. The story chronicles the relationship between an overbearing mother (Greenway) and her daughter Emma — specifically, mom’s objections to Emma marrying college professor Flap Horton — and the blossoming but fraught relationship between the widowed Greenway and her neighbor Breedlove.

Director Lisa Naig is expecting many of the theatergoers who come out to see the show will be familiar with the material, but she credited her lead actors — Lana Bradstream as Aurora, Jeff Harris as Garrett, Lydia Lillibridge as Emma and her real-life husband Tyler Lillibridge as Flap — for putting their own spins on the iconic characters they’re playing. Naig was originally supposed to direct the show three years ago, but the COVID-19 pandemic put those plans on hold.

“At that time, I hadn’t been the ‘director’ director before, and I thought we needed a drama that also has a sprinkling of humor in it too,” she said. “When you start talking about the characters, there is humor as well as that main relationship between mom and daughter and how all of us can relate to a parent-child relationship in some way.”

As Naig described the show, which has become synonymous with the term “tearjerker” over the years, it “hits all the feels.” But although a good chunk of the prospective audience has likely seen the film, she’s doing her best not to spoil the plot for those who haven’t.

“It’s got everything in it. It’s got sadness. It’s got happiness. It’s got humor. It’s got everything,” she said.

When Naig directed “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” last fall, she started to visualize some of those cast members — Bradstream and the Lillibridges in particular — as good fits for “Terms of Endearment,” and from there, she said she “planted the seed” of asking them to audition for the spring show. The extended Iowa winter created its own unique set of challenges with rehearsals, but in the end, she’s happy with all of the cast and crew who have helped to make it a reality.

Playing the wisecracking, off-kilter Breedlove, she joked, must’ve been Harris’s “lifelong goal,” as he emailed her before auditions started to express his interest in taking on Nicholson’s famous character with his own twist.

“It’s a snarky little role, and I like that. He’s a misunderstood a**hole, he really is, (but) he’s got a soft spot. It’s a pretty cool character,” Harris said. “I’ve been trying real hard to stay away from Jack Nicholson because nobody does Jack Nicholson like Jack Nicholson, (but) I probably have stolen a couple of eyebrow lifts and that kind of stuff off of him because that’s just what works… But I try to stay away from it. I’ve got one drunk scene where I try to do Dean Martin.”

Because of the stature of each of the four lead actors in the movie — as previously mentioned, MacLaine and Nicholson both won Oscars for their performances, and Debra Winger (Emma), who also received an Oscar nomination, and Jeff Daniels (Flap) went on to become two of the most respected thespians of their era — Naig stressed the importance of her actors not trying to duplicate them.

“They’re not trying to imitate the roles in the movie at all. They are themselves,” she said.

While Bradsteam said she used “small bits” of what MacLaine did and tried to mix them with similar roles in other movies, the Lillibridges took that directive especially seriously as they admitted they’ve never seen the film and didn’t want to before their performance.

“I don’t want to base my character off of what I see on screen. But I’ve done theatre for many years, and I was just like ‘Let’s do a big part this time. Let’s make people cry.’ We’ll see if it happens,” Lydia Lillibridge said.

Tyler said he was drawn to the idea of playing husband and wife with his actual wife and building on the natural chemistry they already enjoy. But as Lydia clarified, he’s nothing like his onstage character in real life.

“He’s not a jerk in real life. Flap is a lazy piece of crap, and he’s not,” she said. “And I yell at him during the play, and I tell him ‘I’m sorry’ after I’m done yelling at him.”

“I have to keep myself from laughing while it’s happening because it’s just so out of character,” Tyler added.

And although she lamented the sheer number of lines she and Bradstream had to memorize as they converse so much throughout the show, Lydia is proud of the mother-daughter dynamic they’ve managed to create.

“I would say the most memorable and fun part for me is displaying the full spectrum of emotion. I get to yell at people,” Bradstream said.

“Terms of Endearment” will be performed Friday and Saturday night at the Miller Middle School Auditorium and again next weekend from Friday to Sunday with a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, April 30. Tickets will be available at the door.

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.