Lisa MacDougall, Allison Lynch, Pamela Gordon, Andrea House in Nashville: Music City, Mayfield Theatre. Photo by Marc J Chalifoux

By Liz Nicholls, 12thnight.ca

Nashville: Music City, which launches the 50th anniversary season at the Mayfield, begins and ends with Will the Circle Be Unbroken. It’s a thought that counts in any half-century birthday celebration in the world of theatre.

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And in a way the 1907 gospel chestnut embodied in the seminal 1972 album by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, as it gathered the forces of elite classic country together with its contemporary country rock acolytes, shapes this fulsome joint creation by Van Wilmott and Tracey Power.

“It all starts with a song,” we’re told at the outset of a show that traces the course of country music back to the ‘50s and the early days of the WSM Grand Ole Opry, equally divided between the calls of music and the insurance industry. And songs are what this musically lavish show, stylishly performed by an 11-member ensemble of terrific musicians, real pros every one, is all about.

Let no one argue that the Mayfield has ever been stingy in the song lists of their musical compilation shows. Au contraire. And this one, the next instalment of the original ‘Musicians Gone Wild’ series (it began with last season’s Rock The Canyon), is especially extravagant, as two hours-plus of singing by a very hardworking cast — who wear their labours and their bootcut jeans lightly — attest. Spoken narration and annotations about the country music mythology of  “ordinary stories told by ordinary people” are relatively sparing. Ditto truisms (“never underestimate the banjo”). Nashville: Music City does its storytelling in songs. Power’s script confines itself mostly to small, pointed anecdotes about the humble origins of country stars like Dolly Parton (an epigram specialist), Tammy Wynette, or Johnny Cash.

Narda McCarroll’s multi-levelled set conjures a country bar, with add-ons like neon for the Nashville hangout Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, Matt Schuurman’s projections, and Jillian White’s surges of showbiz lighting.

Devon Brayne, Pamela Gordon, Allison Lynch in Nashville: Music City, Mayfield Theatre. Photo by Marc J Chalifoux.

Act I conjures the ‘50s in country music in Nashville, and starts in a period when the musical talent didn’t actually live there at first, and had to be attracted to come. Flatts and Scruggs, the “hillbilly Shakespeare” Hank Williams, the Carters…. Pamela Gordon wraps her big multi-angled voice into Lovesick Blues with a kind of period twang that will gladden the heart of aficionados. The trio of Gordon, Andrea House, and Allison Lynch tuck into the harmonies of Carters’ It’s My Lazy Day. Devon Brayne walks the line unerringly with the rich rumbling baritone of Johnny Cash. And there’s Brad Wiebe’s Elvis take on the Bill Monroe classic Blue Moon of Kentucky, a killer version from Gordon of the Patsy Cline take on Crazy, and more and more. 

It’s a show that rewards versatility. Lynch is an accomplished fiddler as well as singer, for example. House, who apparently can sing in any genre and style, and plays guitar, stand-up bass and auto-harp, not only delivers Stand By Your Man, but nails it with startling dramatic intensity like Cleopatra invoking Mark Antony. “I spent 15 minutes writing it, and a lifetime defending it,” Tammy Wynette notes wryly. It’s paired with Brayne’s version of Jackson. House and Gordon make a duet of Dolly’s Jolene, that gathers into an ensemble number for five, in Wilmott’s artful arrangement.

The vocal harmonies by the ensemble are impressive.  The excellence of the band is by now a Mayfield signature: full marks for having a pedal steel guitar player (Bob Blair).

Nashville: Music City is not without a certain tartness. Act II, which adds pop and rock to country à la Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, alludes to Nashville’s love of “the sound of money.” Which gives Kenny Rogers The Gambler — “there’ll be time enough for countin’ when the deal is done” — a certain angled approach. Nashville the music city is “always looking for the next big hit.” Judging by the song list of this show, it wasn’t exactly unsuccessful.

Songs by Randy Travis, Shania Twain, Garth Brooks and other stadium-fillers, and ah yes, a star-in-progress with country origins, Taylor Swift by name (Lynch does a version of Our Song) are part of the show. And the Dixie Chicks, now the Chicks (in a song led by strong-voiced keyboardist Lisa MacDougall) and the great, lamented John Prine are included too.

Comprehensive, yes. This is a music show that’s built on music, lots and lots of music. But it doesn’t take us to the present: there’s still plenty of room for the Mayfield to play in.

REVIEW

Nashville: Music City

Theatre: Mayfield Dinner Theatre, 16615 109 Ave.

Created by: Tracey Power and Van Wilmott

Directed by: Tracey Power

Starring: Devon Brayne, Pamela Gordon, Andrea House, Bob Blair, Lisa MacDougall, Steve Hoy, Allison Lynch, Mark Sterling, Derek Stremel, Harley Symington, Brad Wiebe

 Running: through Nov. 3

Tickets: mayfieldtheatre.ca