Phone’s ringing, Dude!
And on the other end is Red River Theatres, letting you know that it’s time for another far-out night of The Big Lebowski.
That’s right, the 1998 cult classic Coen brothers comedy is coming back to the big screen for one night only at Red River, and it’s going to be a whole event.
On Thursday starting at 7 p.m., get over to Red River – you know, like, at whatever pace feels comfortable, man – to watch everybody’s favorite bowling movie and take part in an overall laid-back experience in the vibe of the movie.
There will be games, trivia, White Russians, White Russian ice cream from Granite State Candy Shoppe, tokens for Boutwell’s Bowling and a costume contest, among other things. The costume contest figures to be pretty legit, based on photos we’ve seen from past events (Red River did this every year from 2012 to 2015).
That’s what makes this sort of a two-part Go Try It – you should both go to the show and dress up to be part of the spectacle.
If you haven’t seen the movie yet, just do a quick Google image search for The Dude and virtually all of the results will be of the movie’s main character, played brilliantly by Jeff Bridges. The basic theme is just carefree comfort.
You can also, of course, dress up like any other character – Walter is a popular one – but everybody wants to be The Dude, right?
I sure do.
That’s why I made a quick trip to – where else? – the Goodwill.
I like to think of my own wardrobe as pretty comfortable, but I didn’t have anything quite to Dude level. Luckily, there’s no shortage of loose-fitting, unbranded, soft clothing at the local Goodwill, a great store for any occasion.
I stopped in looking for two or three things: a pair of pajama-style pants and either a loose, open sweater or a big robe.
I didn’t find any robes in the men’s section, so I wandered over to the women’s side – would The Dude really care? They did have a few to choose from, but none seemed to quite fit the vibe I was looking for.
I made my way back to the men’s side and started browsing the sweater rack. There were plenty of passable options, though it’s nearly impossible to find the signature Dude sweater (though somehow Aaron Rodgers found the exact one and wore it to a press conference one time).
I ended up with actually a pretty nice button-down sweater that I think I can even pull off as non-costume attire. It set me back 8 bucks, though there were cheaper ones there.
Then I had no trouble at all finding a nice, baggy pair of PJ pants ($5) to complete the ensemble – but no, I didn’t write a check for it.
With my own supply of V-neck T-shirts and sunglasses, I have all I’ll need for my full Dude rig to display at the show.
So for about the same price as a large soda at a chain movie theater, you can get your own Big Lebowski costume to wear to Thursday night’s show.
Tickets are $13, $12 for members and can be bought at redrivertheatres.org or at the door – if they aren’t sold out.
