BWW Reviews: I'LL BE SEEING YOU at Chaffin's Barn

Thanks to the efforts of playwright Lydia Bushfield and a talented cast of actors and musicians, Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre takes audiences on a sentimental journey back to the American homefront during World War II with I'll Be Seeing You, a musical revue that features some of the best-loved tunes from that time. Wonderfully evocative, Bushfield's sweetly crafted - if somewhat overly earnest and perhaps a little mawkish - script tells the stories of three women keeping the homefires burning while their men are off to war, making the world a safer place.

Directed with confident ease and deference for the material by the exceedingly capable David Compton and featuring the music direction of Ginger Newman (whose appreciation of the musical score is felt throughout the show), I'll Be Seeing You features an exemplary cast of actresses as the three brave and patriotic women, including Nancy Allen as Josephine, Melodie Madden-Adams as Margaret and Jennifer Richmond as Savannah.

The three women comprise a picture-perfect trio of wartime heroines, clad in Bushfield's spot-on period costumes and wearing Billy Ditty's beautifully styled wigs. Each actress looks as if she's stepped out of a wartime bandbox, looking for all she's worth as if she has boarded some sort of time machine that has propelled her into the 21^st century. Clearly, the aesthetics of this production (which include Compton's terrific scenic design) are exquisitely conceived and executed to perfection, providing ideal trappings for the period piece which, thereby, helps to elevate the material (which sometimes feels as if could have been lifted from a Designing Women episode in which Charlene dreamed of WWII).

Bushfield's script captures the tone and feeling of America in the 1940s and she examines the changing roles of women in society at that time, as well as the prevailing political tenor of the times and the feeling of patriotism that filled the souls of the people back home while their sons, husbands, fathers and brothers were around the world, making it a safer place for everyone while ensuring American freedom and democracy. It's a tall order, of course, and Bushfield does a good job of relaying all this minutiae in an interesting and entertaining way: Josephine, Margaret and Savannah are working in a munitions factory, doing their part for the war effort, while the men they love are fighting in the European theater or trying to outwit a vision test to do their part in defeating Hitler and Tojo.

I'll Be Seeing You is definitely a sentimental and romanticized take on "the War at home" and rather old-fashioned - and it works, thanks to the superb performances of the cast, Compton's direction and the aforementioned design aesthetics of the production which instantly transport audiences to the time and place described in Bushfield's play. While some scenes tend to go on for too long - and there are obvious stopping points in the script that would make for a tighter, more compelling dramatic effect - you can't help but adore the three women onstage and to identify with their concerns for the men they love.

The women gather in one of the breakrooms at the munitions factory to talk about their lives, to read from letters from their soldiers and to sometime break gloriously into song (it's explained that the factory has a band made up of employees to entertain at monthly dances and this particular breakroom is where there instruments are stored - and the musicians are often there to rehearse and provide accompaniment for the songs that help to propel the story along its way).

Allen plays Josephine, who is sort of the big sister of the trio, with confidence; the mother of three daughters, her husband is fighting in Europe while she does her part for Uncle Sam at the factory. Savannah, played by Richmond, whose patriotic fervor is what brought her to the factory, is the wide-eyed innocent of the group and she has those eyes set on Billy (the charming BJ Rowell), a factory worker whose poor vision is keeping him out of the line of fire. Adams plays Margaret, a debutante rebelling against her family's strict social rules by breaking off an engagement, working at manual labor and pining for a simple, but noble soldier.

It would be near impossible to find three actresses more perfectly matched to these three roles. Each woman has the perfect voice for her character and is able to create the perfect characterization, seamlessly becoming the fictional heroine with ease, finesse and a great deal of grace. Compton's direction keeps the action moving at a good pace , with the songs (featuring the accompaniment of Randy Craft and Richard Scott) capturing the emotion expressed in each of the scenes.

The musical score of I'll Be Seeing You (which obviously includes that particularly memorable World War II-era standard) helps to create the play's period feel, with sense memory sweeping audiences back to that time and place. Starting off with "Ac-Cen-Tu-Ate The Positive" (ebulliently performed by Richmond) and "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy" (the three women do a damn good job recalling The Andrews Sisters), and running the gamut from "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree" to "The White Cliffs of Dover," the score offers a hit parade of the era. And there are some other, perhaps unexpected, tunes included that convey the time and place, including "No Love, No Nothing" and "Is You Is, Or Is You Ain't (My Baby)," which is raucously performed by Rowell.

- I'll Be Seeing You. Written by Lydia Bushfield. Directed by David Compton. Music direction by Ginger Newman. Presented by Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, Nashville. Through February 5. Call (615) 646-9977 for reservations; for details about the company, visit the website at www.dinnertheatre.com.

Pictured: Nancy Allen, Melodie Madden-Adams and Jennifer Richmond

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