Background characters essayed by day players. Casts of thousands. Movies are crawlin’ with ’em. Nobody much cared about the usually unnamed souls who were rarely part of the plot, and they still don’t. But Puffs, a boy-wizard spoof subtitled Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic & Magic, shines a spotlight on them (without casting “lumos,” because that’s a proprietary spell).

Director Pam Cantrell, her cast, and her crew served this entertaining concoction (yes, there are funny bits) with seven of Poe’s stories as ingredients.

Featuring lyrics by Nell Benjamin, a book by Tina Fey, and music by Jeff Richmond (Fey’s husband), and boasting the exemplary direction (plus choreography and costume design) by Ashley Becher, Mean Girls is sure to put a smile on your face and give you a reason to beat the heat.

Having first seen the musical in New York with the original Broadway cast, I came in with extremely high expectations. Director/choreographer Chaz Wolcott’s production more than rose to the challenge and made for a truly fantastic night at the theatre.