BWW Reviews: NOBODY'S PERFECT at Chaffin's Barn

For 49 years, Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre has provided a theatrical home for actors, directors, designers, stage managers and sundry other artists and techies who are striving to make a living in Nashville. In that time, the Chaffins have served up tons of roast beef and enough marinated mushrooms to fill countless swimming pools - but, more importantly, they've served up so many laughs and memorable onstage moments to keep us all in fine fettle for years to come.

So, I have to ask: When was your last trip to the Barn to see a show? No matter when it was, you need to call the box office now and make reservations to be treated to one of Music City's most historic and most welcoming theater companies presenting yet another classic dinner theater comedy: Simon Williams' Nobody's Perfect, directed by CBDT's artistic director Martha Wilkinson (a nine-time First Night Award-winning actor who knows a thing or two about comedy) and starring some of Nashville's finest actors (Bonita Allen, John Mauldin, Lane Wright and Elizabeth Walsh).

With a deft hand, Wilkinson stages the rather gentle comedy that focuses on evolving gender roles, replete with a feminist press trying to find new material for its readers, a shy statistician trying to score it big as a writer, a bumbling grandfather who's only slightly pervy, a rebellious teenager who really loves her dad no matter her vocal protests, a successful businesswoman who longs for a romantic attachment and the requisite man in drag playing a middle-aged Southern belle.

You pair all that with the Barn's groaning board of Southern/country victuals, a genuinely warm greeting from Annie in the box office as you arrive, a broad smile from Cecilia Lighthall as she commands the front desk and hands you off to an actor doing double-duty as host, and a hug from co-owner Janie Chaffin that ensures you're at home, and you won't find an entertainment option more appealing anywhere. Top it off with peanut butter pie or crème brulee (served up by the gracious and attentive Adam Burnett) and you're justthisclose to heaven in West Nashville.

Nobody's Perfect is not perfect (lord, I love a play on words...almost as much as I love a play about words), but then really what is? However, under Wilkinson's guiding influence and the altogether understated, yet wonderfully on-target, performances of her quartet of actors, it nonetheless delivers a pleasant summer's night diversion.

As the harried businesswoman, Allen is terrific. Delivering her lines with unmistakable skill and superb timing, she gives a refreshing performance that sets the tone for the show. Maudlin, playing the statistician/dad/cross-dressing feminist writer, is warm and believable, relying on his estimable skill to ensure that even the most cringe-worthy lines somehow resonate.

Wright plays the 82-year-old grampa with certain bumbling charm that often elicits the loudest audience reactions, and Walsh creates a realistic and memorable teenager with enormous skill and presence.

While the material is not the strongest, Wilkinson and company have updated it in such a way that is believable and genuine, completely unlike some other script updatings we've seen of late that were jarringly off-key.

Shows at Chaffin's Barn aren't cutting edge, but the commitment of the actors and other artists involved in bringing them to life is just as palpable - and may even go down just as smoothly, thanks to the welcoming atmosphere of Nashville's theater home - as anything you're likely to find anywhere you go.

• Nobody's Perfect. By Simon Williams. Directed by Martha Wilkinson. Produced by Janie and John Chaffin. Presented by Chaffin's Barn Dinner Theatre, 8204 Highway 100, Nashville, through July 19. Call (615) 646-9977 for tickets; for further details, go to www.dinnertheatre.com. Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes (including a 15-minute intermission).

To post a comment, you must register and login.