ESCANABA – Players de Noc’s first production of the season opens Friday night at the Bonifas Arts Center theater.

“Come Back to the 5 and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean” takes place 20 years after the death of the 1950s actor James Dean. Ironically, the show opens on the very day that the real James Dean died in a traffic accident, 61 years after it happened.

Director Pete Dzanbozoff said the play is a dramatic comedy.

“Back in ’55 there was a fellow named Joe who hung around with these ladies. He dressed up with two of them and they sang at the senior talent show as the McGuire Sisters. And then he went out and went on a date with a guy dressed up as one of the McGuire Sisters. I won’t say anymore from there. It got a little crazy,” Dzanbozoff said.

Nicole Rossell plays Mona, the star-struck teenager who has a fascination with James Dean.

“I never played someone like Mona before,” Rossell said. “It’s been and incredible challenge but I’m really enjoying it.”

The play runs Friday, Sept. 30; Saturday, Oct. 1 at 8 p.m. with a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, Oct. 2, and again next Thursday, Oct. 6; Friday, Oct. 7 and Saturday, Oct. 8. Tickets are available at the Bonifas, online at playersdenoc.org or at the door.