With three productions over the last 30 years, Florida Studio Theatre has enjoyed box office success with Ted Swindley’s widely produced two-character play with music “Always… Patsy Cline,” based on a true story about a chance meeting between the famed country singer and a Houston housewife who was a big fan.
So it’s not surprising that the theater is presenting another of Swindley’s country-flavored jukebox-ish shows, “Honky Tonk Angels,” which opened its summer mainstage season May 29.
Fans of country music, particularly of the female stars who popularized many of the show’s two dozen songs, may well delight in the music performed by three disparate women who meet on a Greyhound bus heading to Nashville dreaming of fame and stardom. The show provides some escape or relief from the news and pressures of today’s world. You definitely don’t have to think too much. Whether you like it will depend on your tastes in music and performance style.
From left, Alexandra Melrose, Hannah Taylor and Hailie Lucille in a scene from “Honky Tonk Angels” at Florida Studio Theatre. Photo by Sorcha Augustine provided by FST
Where “Patsy Cline” was tender and heartfelt with some great music, “Honky Tonk Angels” is big, brassy and twangy, with a side of pork rinds for extra crunch.
In a way, it’s not unlike some of the many cabaret shows FST has created over the years, except Swindley gives it more of an overarching story and a recurring theme of angels of many kinds.
Alexandra Melrose plays Angela, a Texas housewife and mother of six, who leaves behind her brood for a break in Nashville. On that bus, she meets Hailie Lucille as Sue Ellen, a twice-divorced receptionist from Los Angeles with Texas roots, and Hannah Taylor as Darlene, a innocent young woman from West Virginia seeking a chance to build her own life. (Don’t think too long about the bus route that would have brought them together.)
They have vastly different personalities, but they get to know and like one another while sharing bologna sandwiches and singing out loud. Before they reach Nashville they decide to form a group called the Honky Tonk Angels. And against all realistic odds, they find a job and some success performing at the Honky Tonk Heaven bar.
As directed and choreographed by Ben Liebert, the story and characters become broad stereotypes, but the cast members make the women distinctive individuals and they bring strong voices to the production.
Hannah Taylor, left, and Hailie Lucille get inspired by country comedienne Minnie Pearl in a scene from the Florida Studio Theatre production of “Honky Tonk Angels.” Photo by Sorcha Augustine provided by FST
The story is really an excuse to give the women reason to sing everything from traditional folk tunes and hymns like “I’ll Fly Away” and “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” to Loretta Lynn’s “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You,” Jeannie C. Riley’s “Harper Valley PTA” and Tammy Wynette’s “Stand By Your Man.” There were also numerous catchy tunes I don’t recall hearing before.
Swindley’s script is loose enough to give a little extra meaning to each of the songs for individual characters. Sue Ellen, for example, has a lecherous boss and is eager to escape the drudgery, so it makes some sense that she sings Dolly Parton’s “9 to 5.”
The first act depicts the growing connections between the women on the bus, while the second half shows what is billed as their final performance at the bar after six weeks. (Angela does have a family to get back to, after all.) They don a variety of costumes (designed by Madison Queen) that have them dressed as male bar regulars, Minnie Pearl wannabes and more, as if they’re in skits from the old Carol Burnett variety show.
It can be too much at times because there’s little that’s real or grounded about the characters, though Taylor does make Darlene compelling. But they make some great harmony, and are well supported by a four-member band led by conductor and keyboardist Zach Spound under the musical direction of Nathaniel Beliveau.
From left Hailie Lucille, Alexandra Melrose and Hannah Taylor in “Honky Tonk Angels” at Florida Studio Theatre. Photo by Sorcha Augustine provided by FST
Scenic designers Isabel A. and Moriah Curley-Clay have created a set that easily transforms from a kitchen or office to a bus and then to the Honky Tonk Tavern, and lighting designer Andrew Gray creates some colorful pictures throughout the show.
It doesn’t add up to a lot and there are no tears shed even when they might be appropriate, but the songs may get your toes tapping.
‘Honky Tonk Angels’ by Ted Swindley. Directed and choreographed by Ben Liebert. Reviewed May 29, Florida Studio Theatre Gompertz Theatre, 1265 First St., Sarasota. Through June 21. Tickets are $39-$56. floridastudiotheatre.org; 941-366-9000
