COMFORTABLE HOMEY FOLK SHARE A SWEET STORY

Book and music creators Steve Martin (yes, THAT Steve Martin) and Edie Brickell heard a true story from 1902 and became somewhat obsessed with it. They brainstormed a purely fictional account of what could have led up to that moment (most of Act I), the actual moment itself (the final scene of Act I), and what might have become of everyone afterward (Act II). The result is a sweet tale, put to pleasant music with a live six-piece band, but the storyline itself is rather predictable along the way.

The homey tale jumps back and forth between two time periods – neither of them being the actual 1902 setting. In 1923, Alice Murphy (Keri Miller) is a sixteen-year-old in hill-town Zebulon, North Carolina, in the Blue Ridge Mountains. While not a tomboy, she is progressive for her time and wants to have her own thoughts and ideas and be able to act upon them. She’s sharp and sassy in a way that is pleasing to today’s audiences, but not one bit to her strict Christian father, Daddy Murphy (Lee Price). In particular, her interest Jimmy Ray (Christopher T. Miller), the son of wealthy businessman Mayor Josiah Dobbs (Don Evans), is off-putting to both fathers for different reasons. Murphy doesn’t want his daughter around any boys; Dobbs doesn’t want his son around a poor girl.

In the 1945 part of our time-traveling story, a young soldier named Billy Cane (Mitchell Krassin) returning home to Hayes Creek, a town not very far from Zebulon. He discovers that his gentle father (Michael Harrison) hadn’t had the heart to write his son that Mom had died during his service. Several weeks later, Billy, an avid writer, visits his childhood friend Margo (Hannah Roskelly) and informs her that he is going to submit several of his stories to the popular magazine The Asheville Southern Journal. To be more certain they are received, he travels to Asheville to turn them in to the editor himself so he can make an impression. Who is that editor? The now 38-year-old Alice, linking the two stories.

The standout performance, both in acting and vocal ability is Ms. Miller, who lets us know she’s the one to pay attention to by opening the show strongly and melodically with “If You Knew My Story,” very reminiscent of Connie Francis’s “Where the Boys Are.” She does a lovely duet in Act II with Mr. Miller, who is at his best harmonizing with her in “I Had a Vision.” Comic relief in the cast is found both in Marcy Ledvinka and Anthony Donovan who are very enjoyable as the older Alice’s somewhat-meddling assistants. Vocal ability in the cast definitely varied, but were aided by the comfortable feeling of the skilled live band, all dressed in plaid flannel to fit in with Katrina Peterson’s simple but effective stage set.

The challenge in critiquing everything from community theatre to the Old Globe and La Jolla Playhouse is that expectations just can’t be the same for community theater. As community theatre goes, the cast under Teri Brown’s direction does an admirable job with Sharla Mandere’s choreography, Robert Johnson and Jerrica Stone’s musical direction, and playing their roles overall. Ms. Miller is, rightly, the focal voice and actor, though Ms. Ledvinka captured my attention once again, as she did last April in Lamplighter’s The Spitfire Grill. Ms. Mandere, bringing the southern spirit to the movement of the show, had the challenge of getting quite a few people up to speed with square dancing on top of everything else and everyone was where they needed to be by the call for promenade home.

The script itself walks a tightrope between homey and hokey. While some audience members were clearly surprised by one turn of events (audible gasps), this critic had been awaiting that moment for quite some time as well as foreseeing the big Act I finale twist. Given the Martin’s reputation for doing stand-up comedy like no one had done before and the quirkiness of his 1996 Picasso at the Lapin Agile, the plot of Bright Star just didn’t shine as intensely as it could have. This might explain the show’s short run on Broadway after only 109 public performances. It’s certainly enjoyable, but a hard one to imagine folks rushing to tell friends they must see. Still, this production is a pleasant experience with sweet old-fashioned country music (for which the writing/composing duo won the 2016 Drama Desk Award), nice harmonies in many places, and, clearly, a lot of heart.

photos courtesy of Lamplighters

Bright Star
Lamplighters Community Theatre, 5915 Severin Drive
Fri and Sat at 7:30; Sun at 2
ends on March 23, 2025
for tickets, call 619.303.5092​ or visit Lamplighters