My father has an old record by the Statler Brothers, the country group that began as the backup band for Johnny Cash before having a good string of hits that lasted from the 1970s through the early 1990s.

The album is called, “Then and Now,” with one side featuring olver songs, such as “When my Blue Moon Turns to Gold Again,” and the other side featuring newer releases. Apparently, they had more songs that fit into one category than the other, so to even up the sides (this is quite a bit earlier than the CD era), they had about a 15-minute recording mocking an old-time Saturday morning radio show. The Statler Brothers became, “Lester Moran and the Cadillac Cowboys.”

It’s hilarious the way the group of talented performers was able to really murder songs and act so stupid.

An uncle of mine, after hearing the recording, said, “You really have to be good to be that bad.”

What does that have to do with a play review?

The Easley Foothills Playhouse will have its final three performances of “They Came From Mars And Landed Outside the Farndale Avenue Church Hall in time for the Townswomen’s Guild’s Coffee Morning.”

The play is the seventh of 10 co-written by British by playwrights David McGillivray and Walter Zergin Jr. featuring the attempts of the Farndale Ladies to provide theatrical culture to their small community.

The play is funny, but it needs a talented cast to pull it off. Even one of the Internet reviews of the script warns that the play is not nearly as funny as funny to read as it is to see it performed.

That is because, just as in the case with the Statler Brothers becoming Lester Moran and his Cadillac Cowboys, it takes talent to be this bad.

Whether its the fellow playing Rev. Allsopp who reads every line wrong, the push theater leader who performs as director, musical director, production manager, choreographer, etc., plus has the lead role as “Professor Einstein,” or the lady who accidentally takes valium and can hardly stay alert for the second act.

For a play with just five on-stage actors, there’s a lot going on. Thankfully, the cast works together wonderfully, making the play provide a hilarious two hours of local theater.

We should expect no less from director Jolyn Chelak. She delighted crowds on stage in the playhouse’s most recent production, Annie, as she played Ms. Hannigan. In this play, we see her talents for working behind the scenes, and pulling together a wild collection of scenes and keeping them flowing smoothly and logically.

Becky Swehla Hendrich played Phoebe Reece, the director and star of the fictional play. Hendrich slips between her “real life” character and that of Professor Einstein in the “play.”

Donna Duffie plays Norah Higginbotham, who in turns plays Mrs. Tompkins and Roberta the Robot. Donna first became involved in local theater through her daughter Katherine’s efforts. If she was going to take Katherine to play practice, why not stick around and see what she could do to help.

And help she has. During the past 10 years, Donna has been excellent in many roles, and served behind the scenes for almost every Foothills Playhouse production during that time.

Her efforts are once again wonderful in this play, starting with her “Mrs. Tompkins” answering the ringing iron (trust me, you’ll have to go see the play to understand) to playing the role of Robert the Robot despite being “wasted” by an accidental handful of valiums.

Travis Camp returns to the Foothills Playhouse stage as Gordon Butz, who is making his stage debut after serving behind the scenes for to Fernadle Avenue productions.

Camp is hilarious as Gordon finds his “cheat notes” then misreads almost every line in the first act. In the second act, Gordon overacts as the characters supposedly go into space.

Allyson Cauble plays Felicity Cheshire, who plays Gordon’s wife in the fictional play. Felicity also plays Indesit the Martian. She keeps the Martian’s visor on throughout the play, because she cannot remove it without pulling her hair. She abandons a gravely voice for the Martian character because, quite honestly, it hurts her throat to talk that way.

Cauble is very funny in her role, as her character still isn’t comfortable with the theater. At the first of the show, she unloads the entire backstage of set designs, leaving stuff boxed up for the characters to figure out as they go.

Lisa Spears plays Thelma, who has the dual role of Jimmy and Susan Allsopp, the children of the Rev. and Mrs. Allsopp.

For Susan, her role in the play becomes more difficult because Hilda Bristow — the fictional woman who was to play leading man Jack Braithwaite — had a terribly upset stomach and cannot leave the bathroom long enough to perform a scene. But the show must go on, so the remaining characters just pretend that “Jack” is on-stage.

Eventually this leads to Susan having to perform a love scene by herself, which of course leads to more laughs.

Another member of Sunday’s audience noted a different talent the cast obviously has.

“I just don’t see how they can go that long without laughing at one another,” he said as he headed to the snack bar for refreshments during intermission between Acts I and II.

The final three shows are 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday. Don’t miss this chance to perhaps the funniest production yet.