Go to the &uot;Mississippi Medicine Show.&uot; Go to laugh, to cry, to sigh, to tap your toes and clap your hands.

In its 30th year at the Natchez Little Theatre, the show celebrates the music and times of the showboat era, when fast-talking medicine men traveled from village to village selling suspect cure-alls in bottles.

Charles Conner Burns, as Dr. Morphineus Codeine Shingles, touts his elixir of life: It will shine your shoes, black or brown; get rid of your freckles; and it even tastes good with a tomato sandwich, he says. And how he says it. How does he remember those opening tongue-twisting lines?

Don Vesterse, in a memorable moment early in the show, takes a swig of the elixir, and so invigorated, surprises the audience with a cartwheel across the stage

A cast of diverse characters includes Arlana Hargrave as Miss Arlana, whose comical zingers spin smartly off the straight-faced medicine man’s

lines.

At the center of all the music and dancing is Sylvia Johns Ritchie, musical director, who plays the keyboard as accompaniment, background and pure entertainment. She effervesces at the piano, a perky pink plume in her hair.

The audience shouted with appreciation after her lively rendition of &uot;Twelfth Street Rag,&uot; an arrangement that has her fingers flying and arms pumping and allows her to show off her natural talent and her Julliard School of Music education.

The first half of the show ends with a Mark Twain performance by the renowned Twain impersonator Richard Salassi, a Vicksburg native now living in Texas. He tours with his one-man show, &uot;A Visit with Mark Twain,&uot; and offers the &uot;Medicine Show&uot; audience a delightful sample.

Layne Taylor, director of the show, filled in at the last minute for a singer-dancer who had to drop out of the cast. He charmed the audience with &uot;Is It True What They Say About Dixie?&uot;

as he stepped rhythmically down the steps of the showboat set, emphasizing the tempo with graceful moves and singing a la the great late Maurice Chevalier.

Among other memorable musical moments are Mary Nell Rushing’s rendition of &uot;Summertime&uot; and Maura Johnson’s &uot;Can’t Help Loving That Man of Mine.&uot;

In the second half of the show, the well-known and loved Natchez gospel and spiritual singer Willie Minor put a hush on the audience, who were visibly moved by his clear, natural voice and straightforward presentation, starting with &uot;Old Man River&uot; and moving on to &uot;Swing Low, Sweet Chariot&uot; and &uot;Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen.&uot;

The show concludes with rousing song and dance, with young Chase Caldwell and Layne Taylor center stage, with help from the entire cast, in toe-tapping numbers that send the audience away humming &uot;Mississippi Medicine Show&uot; tunes.

The show begins at 8 p.m. every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday during Fall Pilgrimage. The Natchez Little Theatre playhouse is at 319 Linton Ave. Tickets are $12 per person and are available at Natchez Pilgrimage Tours, corner of Canal and State streets.