You too might feel that it’s easy to get a bit inured to the non-stop musical flair on the stage that can charm even the most country music adverse in the crowd. When triple threat Leenya Rideout picks up her fiddle to join in the Act II song Sangria, we get another rush of admiring the explosion of musical talent on the stage. Rideout was already ably doing quick changes to be two different characters—-a hustling country music promoter and the meth addict mother whose story gives Music City a patina of gravitas beyond the boy-meets-girl formula of its core.
Music City is powered by crooners and then some. At a preview performance, the then some jumped out from the gitgo for Bedlam devotees who saw the recent Medea Re-Versed or followers of beatbox culture. That show's beatboxer, the vocal magician Mark Martin, stepped up from one of the tables to astound us on the stage. Lucky us--Martin was one of the volunteers for the open mic that day, a gig that ANY audience member can apply for ahead of time.
Bedlam Creates a Music Hall With Every Detail Considered
The show’s opening doesn’t happen all at once. We step into a honky-tonk to hand-in our tickets and find out where we sit. The hall is packed with small cabaret tables. The walls are covered with posters about music happenings on the horizon. You can get your beer at the bar. Coasters with the bar’s Wicked Tickle name are at your table. There’s already music and we don’t quite know how much the open mic we find ourselves at is part of the script, or just a get-us-in-the-mood pre-show. The masterful set design by Clifton Chadick makes us forget the Gothic surrounds of the Church we traverse to get to this music dive. We can almost smell the beer getting stale.
It’s All About Country Music
Making it to the Grand ‘Ol Opry, or getting a label to buy your music, or even better, finding producers who want to put you on tour, drives just about every character in the play. Lyrics by Country Music star JT Harding are heart-on-your-sleeve typical, with the exception of a memorably nuanced song It’s Different for a Girl sung with aching feeling by co-lead Casey Shuler, who plays the love interest of TJ performed by Stephen Michael Spencer.
For this reviewer, Spencer’s magnetic energy is a standout— with his range especially remarkable to those of us who saw him play a prissy narcissist in Bedlam’s Medea Re-Versed. That said, the entire cast seems born to sing in country style. The only thing missing is a classic country yodel.
There is a great line in the play that says (to paraphrase) if you have to introduce what a song means before you sing it, there is something wrong with the song. That strikes this reviewer as a pithy sum up of the Country Music genre as a whole, and Music City too. It’s a straightforward story with a happy ending that for a moment we don’t think we are going to get. If you disdainfully feel that Country Music is a tad too much like sentimentality porn this isn’t your show. For open-minded music omnivores and especially for country music fans, Music City is a top pick.
Photos: Ashley Garrett
WHEN:
Open Run
WHERE:
WEST END THEATRE
263 WEST 86TH ST.
NY, NY 10024
CAST:
Drew Bastian, Jonathan Judge-Russo, Julianne Merrill, Leenya Rideout, Andrew Rothenberg, Casey Shuler, and Stephen Michael Spencer.
CREATIVE TEAM:
Directed by BEDLAM’s Artistic Director Eric Tucker, with a book by Peter Zinn (Rumspringa), music & lyrics by Billboard Chart topping Country songwriter J.T. Harding, choreography by John Heginbotham (Oklahoma!), Musical Direction by Julianne Merrill
Click here to read more Picture This Post Bedlam stories.
About the Author: Amy Munice
Amy Munice is Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publisher of Picture This Post. She covers books, dance, film, theater, music, museums and travel. Prior to founding Picture This Post, Amy was a freelance writer and global PR specialist for decades—writing and ghostwriting thousands of articles and promotional communications on a wide range of technical and not-so-technical topics.
