A friend of mine from high school, Alison Bacewicz, is living the acting dream.  A couple days ago she contacted me and mentioned she would be in town on a national tour of the Broadway musical Urban Cowboy.  She had a couple of comps available, so Bernie and I went.

As a play, this show is of fluffy substance and essentially a twangy country-style review of a bunch of music ranging from Friends in Low Places to Here Comes that Hurt Again.  Of course, so much musical theatre today is geared toward pleasing old people that fluffy with no substance was great for the crowd attending, but that’s a rant that we don’t need to get into now.  As a show, I think this one would be fantastic material for an amusement park, but I’m surprised it ever made it to Broadway.  Whoever wrote the Wikipedia article on the show seems to agree with me on that. 

I’ve never toured, mostly because I have been married for my entire professional career and am unwilling to be parted from my Bernie for that length of time.  Before the show I had Alison over for a visit and we talked about the tour experience.  She mentioned that the tech crew didn’t sleep in hotels all that often because they were usually loading in or out when the cast was sleeping in hotels, so techies sleep on the bus, and shower when they can at theaters.  She also mentioned that the turnover rate amongst tech crews on tour runs pretty high.  I found this information very interesting, as the only touring hardship I’d ever taken the time to consider was separation from people I love. 

The set was very boxy and simple, which I’m guessing helps it pack up more easily than random angles and details sticking out all over.  It was set in a Houston bar called Gilly’s.  There was a double door entrance to the bar off center to stageright, with the bar itself stageright of the door.  Stageleft of the door was a balcony that actors could access from backstage and under the balcony was the band.  The main material used to build the walls was corrugated tin which is that wavy stuff they use to make tin roofs in real life.  Overall it was effective without being either offensive or impressive.  When they occasionally traveled to various homes of characters it was with the addition of a flat or a platform with some furniture.  The additions were very simple, but did help us move from location to location. 

My favorite part of the set was a big shiny saddle that was hanging as a chandelier and acting as a disco ball in various scenes.  Another thing that I found amusing was the mechanical bull used in a number of scenes.  I was surprised at how smoothly it moved on and off stage considering the size and awkward shape of the object.    

Overall the costume design was very fun, western-style dress that was a little flirty.  There were two kind of skanky female costumes with short shorts and tube tops that didn’t seem to fit with the rest of the show.  Other than that, there were some really fantastic costume choices.  Most of the girls are wearing jeans, boots and cute country tops with a little mid-riff peeking out.  The rich, want-to-be cowgirl, Pam, shows up in designer western jeans, a designer version of the flirty cowgirl shirt, and spike heels, which is fantastic in the way in contrasts with everyone else so subtly.  (Side note:  The little old lady sitting in front of me didn’t like the fact that the heels made Pam taller than the guy she was playing with and said so very loudly.  It’s funny how regular audience members see things so differently sometimes.)  When the main character cowboy, Bud, is supposed to show up in a tux and instead shows up in his most dressy western outfit, he looks perfectly classy and western at the same time.  For the wedding scene, the bridesmaids and bride all look appropriately formal, and yet still very western.  The bride’s veil even involves a cowboy hat. 

Lighting design for these shows usually happens on the fly.  There is sometimes communication between the designers and theater beforehand to add specials, but usually the designers are limited to the house rep plot and a few specials.  Considering these limitations, the lighting was fun and achieved some artsiness while maintaining enough light that everything important could be seen.  It seemed like they decided not to light anything downstage of the proscenium arch, which took the three or four feet closest to the audience out of the picture.  While it’s understandable that sometimes time limitations cause issues like this, it’s too bad because the closer you can get actors to the audience, the better connection they are able to make and the more fun everyone has.  I wonder if they have the same problem when they play theaters with much more space between the proscenium and the audience or if that was a consequence of the Stanley Theater rep plot. 

I’m not sure if they brought their own sound guys or if the Stanley provided sound, but I’m guessing they brought their own.  I know people who work sound at the Stanley, and they’ve always been competent.  The sound in this case definitely had issues.  It was most noticeable when leads were really getting into it and in their most passionate singing moments the volume reached the top of what the limiters would allow.  The result was that instead of the most belted moments being the most passionate sound wise, the crescendo was kind of capped off, so the singer looked like they were really going for it but the sound stayed flat and at some moments even sounded tinny.  The notes were still right, but the dynamics were poo.  The band did not sound balanced for the entire performance.  I hear sound is the area where there is the highest turnover rate on tour, so perhaps these sound people were new, or perhaps because turnover rates are so high it’s hard to keep good help.  Or perhaps equipment was malfunctioning all over the place and I have been completely unfair in my evaluation of the sound for this production.  Even with those problems, the performers and musicians were all so talented that it was still fun to listen to. 

If I had seen an ad for this show, I would not have bought tickets.  Country music is not usually my thing, so it simply would not have caught my interest.  I am glad, however, to have had the experience of attending.  There are a couple gems, like the disco saddle, that I will file away in my mental bag of tricks just in case they ever come in handy.  Also, while nit picking can always be done, it was a lot of fun to watch.  It did exactly what musical theatre should do in that it provided entertainment which allowed me to escape the -3 degree weather and be transported to a place where the sun is shining and the best and worst moments in life can be summed up in a song.  I left with a smile on my face and so did everyone around me.

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