Randal Myler gives good country, and the new show he directed, Good Ol' Girls, starts as a lively, jumpin' Country-Western romp with five dynamic women singers: Lauren Kennedy, Teri Ralston, Gina Stewart, Liza Vann, the sparkling Sally Mayes, and a zippy, four-member backup band. They're all full of spirit, and the clever, flavorful songs by Matraca Berg and Marshall Chapman are an entertaining glance at Southern life. It's a feel-good show performed by a terrific ensemble of professionals.
Love, childbirth, old age - glimpses of Southern life in the mix of the show's separate monologues, all from stories by Lee Smith and Jill McCorkle. Paul Ferguson adapted the stories into this show, and as the songs lift us, some of the monologues, rather than suggest, blatantly declare emotional states. The attempt at wider range, like an old-folks-home scene, while trying to be touching, just holds up the show as a long leadup to the next song, which brings us back to the backbone of the evening: the music. The piece then sinks into sentimentality as we see a tearful description of the death of a mother. For me, this needed to be expressed primarily in song, not monologue. The strength is in the songs, which have a familiar authenticity, and these women really put them over.
The set by Timothy R. Mackabee is a map of the Carolinas and part of Georgia on a stage-wide scrim, behind which the band is revealed playing. It works. So does the show as an entirety. If you like this kind of music (I do), you'll have a great time (I did).
