Waiting for Guffman

Waiting for Guffman is a mockumentary comedy film, co-written and directed by Christopher Guest, that was released in 1997. Its cast included Catherine O'Hara, Eugene Levy, Fred Willard, and Parker Posey.

The title of the film is a reference to the Samuel Beckett play Waiting for Godot. As in the other mockumentaries created by Guest, the majority of the dialogue is improvised. Because the film is about the production of a stage musical, it contains several original musical numbers.

Plot

In the fictional small town of Blaine, Missouri, a handful of utterly delusional residents prepare to put on a community theater production led by eccentric director Corky St. Clair (Christopher Guest). The show, a musical chronicling the town's history titled Red, White and Blaine, is to be performed as part of the town's 150th anniversary celebration.

Cast in the leads are Ron and Sheila Albertson (Catherine O'Hara and Fred Willard), a pair of married travel agents who are also regular amateur performers; Libby Mae Brown (Parker Posey), a perky Dairy Queen employee; Clifford Wooley (Lewis Arquette), a "long time Blaineian" and retired taxidermist who is Red, White and Blaine's narrator; Johnny Savage (Matt Keeslar), a handsome and oblivious mechanic, who Corky goes out of his way to get into the play; and Dr. Allan Pearl (Eugene Levy), a tragically square dentist determined to discover his inner entertainer. High school teacher Lloyd Miller (Bob Balaban) is the show's increasingly frustrated musical director.