Performers sing way into hearts

You couldn’t tell the other night who all were enjoying themselves more, the performers or the audience. For 2 1/2 hours, it was a toss-up: both did.

And the charming old hall reverberated with songs and laughter and applause as 14 performers and about 100 audience members – the number should have been doubled – forged a delightful partnership in what was billed “A Grand Night for Singing.”

That it was. The Broadway Music Revue was presented by the Full Moon Players as a benefit, something the group does generously as fundraisers for nonprofit organizations.

According to their playbill, the Full Moon Players are in their ninth year of performing in Penobscot and Hancock counties but many of the troupe’s members have experience far exceeding that timeline. For instance, the artistic team’s director-producer Heather Astbury helped form Full Moon Players around her cousin Lisa’s kitchen table. Astbury has performed for more than 16 years, but this musical troupe, she says, is where her heart is.

It’s obvious why: Cast members speak of each other as “family,” and the collective energy of more than a dozen family members acting on behalf of family is an amazing thing to behold.

A co-founder of Full Moon Players, Ben Layman, is well-known for his work on community theater stages from Machias to Bangor. He directed the Players in “Steel Magnolias” and Neil Simon’s “Rumors,” and now resides in Boston.

You could tell how glad he was, reunited with his Players, thanking them for their “endless support” over the years and for “believing in him.” And that’s the feeling of the entire troupe, one for the other, a group of performers where “everyone is given the opportunity to shine.”

Shine they did: in a solo from “Les Miserables,” in a duet from “Phantom of the Opera,” in selections from “Hairspray,” “Annie Get Your Gun,” “Aida,” “Scarlet Pimpernel,” “Showboat,” “Wicked,” and – the choreographed selections “Dancin’ Queen and “Take a Chance” almost bringing down the house – from “Mamma Mia.”

More memorable than their songs or dances or costumes or the outstanding recorded accompaniment was the sheer contagion of their enthusiasm. They loved what they were doing the other night, and the audience loved them right back.

When you get a chance, at a venue somewhere in the Down East area, go see these performers. You don’t have to wait for a full moon. This troupe will bring one to you.