“Let me keep on standing!”

”Rocky the Musical,” which opened Friday night, is billed as the last production of the History Boy Theatre Company in Jefferson. Please say it ain’t so.

JEFFERSON, Iowa – You want to know how much Robby and Sara Pedersen wanted the “farewell show” of their History Boy Theatre Company here to be an “epic musical” that people will talk about for years?

Well, working with Robby’s daughter Samantha Pedersen-Schmidt as co-director, they first settled on an inspiring story that the public loves, “Rocky.” It was an Academy Award winning movie that debuted in 1976 starring actor Sylvester Stallone, who also wrote the screenplay, reportedly in three days. It was turned into a musical in 2012, and hit Broadway in 2014.

About three months ago, the Pedersen team decided that “Rocky the Musical” would be their final show here in early August, no matter how difficult preparations, casting and staging might be.

Robby, 54, who is a genuine stage veteran and somewhat athletic, knew what he was getting into by playing and singing the lead role of boxer Rocky Balboa. Robby’s wife Sara Pedersen, 49, would play and sing the important role of Rocky’s girlfriend Adrian Pennino — despite Sara never before having acted in a play.

Robby and Sara Pedersen greeted members of the audience on stage, after their first performance of “Rocky the Musical” Friday night, Aug. 1, in their History Boy Theatre Company in Jefferson.

To get ready, they hit the road. And the trails. And the hiking paths at the Ledges State Park outside nearby Boone.

“I dropped 40 pounds,” Robby told me. How? “I was running 10 miles a week, we were riding our bicycles all over, and only eating vegetables and steak.”

And, Sara? “I lost 30 pounds,” she said. “We cut as many carbs as we could in our meals — no pasta, no bread, no ice cream. Believe me, we have a date at an ice cream shop about 10 days from now.” That’s when the show completes it run of two weekends.

All this has been additionally difficult for Sara because her mother, Sue Berreth, of Des Moines, was terminally ill. In fact, she died Friday night, Aug. 1, during the debut performance here. Sara said Saturday she will continue in the show. “We’ve known this was coming,” she said. “It’s like a weight has been lifted from us now, knowing she isn’t suffering anymore.”

In recent weeks, Robby, Sara and Samantha Pedersen-Schmidt, who is playing and singing the role of a pet shop owner in the South Philadelphia of 1975, worked closely with 16 other cast members and a stage crew of five, learning the fast-moving storyline and 23 songs.

Robby Pedersen, Sara Pedersen and Robby’s daughter Samantha Pedersen-Schmidt gave the big opening night audience a thank you before the start of the musical. Samantha is making her last appearances at the theater before she and her family move this fall to Florida, where her husband Brandon is to be based as a pilot for American Airlines.

The debut Friday night was in front of a nearly full house in the theater of more than 120 seats that Robby and a lot of other workers built 15 or so years ago in the back end of what was once a lumberyard a block off the courthouse square in Jefferson.

To get into the theater, you walk through the fantastic master furniture-making shop that Robby Pedersen operates as “RVP 1875” in the front end of the building. “RVP” are his initials. The 1875 refers to the year when nearly all early towns in the Midwest, and maybe beyond, had master carpenters busy in shops building furniture — and caskets, too. The work that Robby and his apprentices do today is all done with the designs and tools of 1875.

Performances of “Rocky the Musical” remain tonight (Saturday, Aug. 2) at 7 p.m., with three more scheduled next weekend — Friday Aug. 8 and Saturday Aug. 9 at 7 p.m. and Sunday Aug. 10 at a 2 p.m. matinee. All tickets are general admission for $20. Seat selection begins when doors open 30 minutes before each performance. More information is available at (515) 943-5639 or by email at historyboytheatrecompany@gmail.com.

When you arrive at History Boy Theatre Company, the stars of the show sometimes also hand you the programs for the performance.

The debut had particularly strong performances from Dynastacius Collins, playing World Champion boxer Apollo Creed; Curt Nelson, playing the rough boxing gym owner Mickey Goldmill; Lucas Obert, playing several characters, most notably the ringside announcer for the climactic championship match of Balboa vs. Creed, and all in the ensemble who do the amazing boxing “workout” scenes in gray sweatsuits with hoods pulled over their heads. It was shadow boxing and running, done like dancing!

Another nice touch was that Shannon Hobbs, a music teacher in the nearby Paton-Churdan schools, is in the show with her high school-aged triplet daughters Anastacia, Catarina and Bridget. And Robby’s three Schmidt granddaughters — Maelee and twins Jordyn and Jadyn — are in it with their grandpa and mom.

The show got stronger and better through its run of just over two hours (with an intermission). You knew it had become a real hit when the two boxers and their entourages, on their way to the boxing ring on stage for their championship fight, moved from the back of the house through a row in the audience, and the people in the seats were chanting, “Rock-Y! Rock-Y! Rock-Y!”

When it ended, Jefferson farmer Dave Rasmussen, sitting adjacent to me with his wife Joey, beamed and said, “Now THAT’s entertainment!”

It’s been 17 years of professional theater like this that Robby Pedersen has given to audiences who’ve come from all over Iowa and beyond for shows like this here in his ol’ hometown — 30 such shows, in fact. Quality and innovative productions with real talent, both pro and local, old and young, in an intimate rustic setting.

On a sidewall of the theater, posters of a few past productions at History Boy Theatre Company.

And has it now really run its course?

The Pedersens say yes.

“We’re going back to building furniture,” Sara said. And what happens to the theater itself? “We don’t have anything solid planned yet,” she told me Friday afternoon. “But one thing we are considering is turning furniture-making into an entertainment form. We might shoot a pilot about it, and we will be doing more with it on social media.”

But it’s hard for me to imagine Robby Pedersen being AWOL from theatrical productions. He’s been involved in plays since high school here, then at Iowa State University, then for 10 years playing “the pioneer farmer” at Living History Farms on the edge of Des Moines, then in Story City before he moved his woodworking and theater work to Jefferson.

And there was this intriguing scene late in “Rocky the Musical” when Robby, as Rocky, is mentally prepping for his fight with Apollo Creed. Will he be embarrassed? Could he actually challenge, or even upset, the champion? And right then Robby, as Rocky, sings:

I know who I am,
I know where I’m from,
I don’t give a damn,
Except to keep on standing.
Let me keep on standing!

That told me something.

Before the show, Robby and Sara Pedersen stop for a moment during a final run-through of a few of the songs in “Rocky the Musical.” In the background, wearing the white shirt, is Dynastacius Collins, who played the character Apollo Creed.

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