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by John Foley, Mark Hardwick, Debra Monk, Cass Morgan, John Schimmel, Jim Wann
Queen�s Theatre To 2 April 2005
Tue-Sat 8pm Mat 24 March, 2 April 2.30pm
Audio-described 2 April 2.30pm
BSL Signed 23 March
Runs 1hr 40min One interval
TICKETS: 01708 443333
www.queens-theatre.co.uk
Review: Timothy Ramsden 14 March
Pump Rock from Pump Folk in Pump Country. And the Dinettes are delicious.
There exists a superb, defining account of Country music, but this isn�t it. The multi-authored, Route 57, North Carolina musical revived at the Queen�s has none of the range or power of Robert Altman�s film Nashville. Yet, Corneo Gas and the Double Cupp Dinette sidling up close as a one-stop filling-station for every traveller�s stomach and tank, make for a pleasant way to enjoy the upbeat and soulfully sad aspects of Country music.
However you see it - Corney ole� chords or the Double-Cupp delight of Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette soundalike sisters � it�s the songs that are going to get you if anything does. One�s barely over before the next�s being cued in the few spoken lines. In this world men don�t let a date hold them back when the new fishing licence comes through while women, sweet, smiling, aiver so nice, make the real running. Sweet smiles just cover a steely will made stronger by its moral certainties.
They�re sweet as the pie they offer, but try coming back if you didn�t leave a tip first time round. Men are like children by comparison, be it James Earl Adair�s mature sex symbol whose fancy new shirt for The Night Dolly Parton Was Almost Mine just illustrates his capacity to be overawed, or Philip Reed�s Jackson, a happy consumer with the James Dean looks who�d see no cause to be a rebel if you explained it to him with diagrams.
There�s sympathetic humour, but this is a concert-party for the faithful; those who put Country first. And Matt Devitt�s Hornchurch production enjoys every minute, with Mark Walters� aptly garish set allowing sight of the dust-trail outside, while a car-bonnet conceals a keyboard, a pile of tyres hides a snare-drum.
The cast seem to be having a party; Devitt�s main rehearsal task is likely to have been deciding which ideas from this creatively fertile group couldn�t be included. The detailed interplay between characters, or Wendy Parkin�s Prudie sassily trawling the audience for suitable men, show that, if Country is your territory, you won�t find it served up better than here.
Rhetta Cupp: Loveday Ingram
Prudie Cupp: Wendy Parkin
Jim: James Eaton
Jackson: Philip Reed
Eddie: Peter Helmer
LM: James Earl Adair
Director: Matt Devitt
Designer: Mark Walters
Lighting: Chris Jaeger
Sound: Whizz
Musical Directors: Matt Devitt, Julian Littman
Choreography: Kraig Thornber
Reviewsgate.com
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