BWW Reviews: Wilbury Group Showcases New Works with ROADHOUSE: THE MUSICAL

For theater aritsts and theater lovers, few things compare to watching the genesis of a new play or musical. The creation and development of a new work, from initial staged readings and workshops to final performance, is a thrilling process. Of course, there are many steps along the way and not all of them are successful. Not every aspect of the play found in the first version of the script will make it to the final version. Not every beloved moment or great-idea-at-the-time will end up making the grade when all is said and done.

Still, it's a process that is vital to the present and future of theater. Vital because new blood and new life must be created and injected into the theatrical world and it's up to theater artists everywhere to make sure that happens. In our region, one of the companies doing just that is The Wilbury Group, currently presenting the second iteration of a new work, Roadhouse: The Musical.

Like many musicals these days, this one takes as its source material a movie, the 1989 film Roadhouse, starring Patrick Swayze. In the movie, which is considered by many to be a cult classic, Swayze plays a professional bouncer named James Dalton. When Dalton takes a new job as head of security in the town of Jasper, Missouri, he ends up cleaning up the bar and the whole town, while falling in love and kicking a lot of butt in the process.

If that sounds awful, don't worry, it is. But it's so awful that it's great, one of those movies that becomes entertaining and fun because of just how unashamedly bad it is. It's a movie that cries out for the kind of treatment given to it by the musical's writer and director, Brien Lang. Lang creates an interesting hybrid here, something not unlike Mystery Science Theatre 3000 with music or those late-night showings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show where people act out the movie and throw stuff at the screen. In fact, if Mystery Science Theatre and Rocky Horror Picture Show had a baby who grew up to be a redneck, Roadhouse: The Musical would be that child.

For his musical, Lang creates an interesting and mostly effective concept. A group of actors narrate the story of the movie, occassionally providing voice-over for the movie as it silently plays on a big screen behind them. Then, because this is a musical, after all, the actors occassionally turn key scenes or lines from the movie into musical numbers. As for the songs themselves, they are, as is often the case, highly hit or miss.

Occassionally, Lang's musical numbers fall pretty flat, as they do with two early songs, sung by the same character, one about not calling him "sir" and another about never marrying an ugly woman. Both are really not interesting, unique or off-the-wall enough moments from the movie to be entertaining songs. Later on, though, Lang hits his musical stride with a couple of hilariously brilliant pieces of music. "Pain Don't Hurt" is a perfect send-up of the tough guys in these movies who seem to never get hurt, no matter how much they are wounded and bleeding. Also perfect is a song about the "Most Awkward Love Scene," hilariously accompained by both two actors on stage acting out the awkward love scene while singing backup and the actual love scene from the movie playing on the screen upstage.

Those two musical highlights are joined by some others which come pretty close. "Too Stupid to Have a Good Time" seems to be Lang's attempt to inject some rock'n'roll into the country/blues feeling of the evening, and he mostly pulls it off. Another song about what a character used to do with guys in prison is also a hilarious riff on what is arguably the worst line in the entire movie. Another attempt to do something similar, taking a ridiculous moment in the movie and turning it into song, a number about a woman being too smart to have a great body, just comes across as boring and sexist.

The most disapointing moment from Lang is how he handles the end of the film. At the point when we're at the film's climax, he's really hit his stride and it's likely the adience is finally all-in. By now, they've figured out the convention (we're gonna take an awful, ludicrous line or moment from the movie and turn it into a song) and they're ready for the next one. Unfortunately, Lang doesn't even try, he just has the actors tell us what happened, describing the movie's ending in the most boring way possible. If you're not going to write a song about it (and it would have been great to see what Lang would have come up with for the mayhem at the movie's end), at least have the actors act it out while the film plays behind them (which works wonderfully at other points in the production). Lang breaks one of the primary rules of playwriting: Show, don't tell.

Wilbury has provided Lang with an outlet for his creation and also supplied him with a talented group of actors and musicians. Rundy Sanda is perfect as the charming yet deadly James Dalton. He's like Patrick Swayze in the movie, if Swayze was actually being played by Elvis Presley. Meg Sullivan is hilarious and a lot of fun to watch as the "love-inerest," Doctor Elizabeth Clay. She also provides narration, which is an interesting choice since Lang could just have had the actors act out the movie in its entirety, instead of utilizing a narrator.

David Tessier pops up as Cody but his talents are mostly used as a member of the band, playing lead guitar. Peter Deffert as Wesley demonstrates a great talent for singing the songs he's asked to deliver while also bringing a great character-actor vibe to his speaking moments. Jeff Hodge is great as always, in an intentionally over-the-top way, as Jimmy and Mike Watson fits right in as Emmet and Red Webster. Lang also shows up as Wade Garrett, while also playing in the band, along with Tom Grace, Dave Carney, Tessier, Hodge and Sullivan.

There is a lot going on here and the major question one is left with is what, exactly, does Lang want this to be? A times, it feels like a bunch of buddies hanging out together, having some beers and making fun of an old movie by making up silly songs about it and how bad it is. Which is to say, it doesn't feel like an actual production of an actual musical.

On the other hand, that may be exactly what Lang is going for. As a matter of fact, the musical starts out with the cast singing to the audience, letting us know that it's a work in progress and we should not expect too much (which is a charming and hilarious touch, it's a song that should precede most, if not all, works in progress). Still, if Lang wants this show to go beyond the halls of Willbury's space and out into the theatrical world, the show will need a few things, like a satisfying ending and a greater commitment ot the concept (if they're going to act out the movie, have them act out the entire movie, for example). A round of "let's make up funny songs about the ridiculous moments in this movie" makes for an awesome party game, but doesn't make for a fully satisfying night of theater.

Full disclosure, I did not see the first version of this musical and have no idea how this one differs. If Lang comes up with a third version and it appears on the Wilbury's stage, he can count on me to drop in to see what he's come up with next.

Roadhouse: The Musical is at the Wilbury Theatre Group, located at the Southside Cultural Center, 393 Broad Street, in Providence. It runs through March 7th, with shows at 7:30pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Tickets may be purchased through the group's website, www.thewilburygroup.org.

Pictured (L to R): Rudy Sanda, Meg Sullivan, Jeff Hodge.

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