Theatre Review

Lang’s ‘Road Show’ a work in progress at Wilbury

Don Fowler
Posted 3/6/15

Back in the ’80s, Patrick Swayze starred in an awful Grade B movie, “Roadhouse,” that has become a cult movie of sorts, showing up on late night cable TV.

Brien Lang was obsessed with …

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Theatre Review

Lang’s ‘Road Show’ a work in progress at Wilbury

Posted

Back in the ’80s, Patrick Swayze starred in an awful Grade B movie, “Roadhouse,” that has become a cult movie of sorts, showing up on late night cable TV.

Brien Lang was obsessed with turning the movie into a musical, which he originally presented in two Wilbury Theatre workshops.

It has been reworked and is being shown at Wilbury through March 7 as a “Work in Progress.” To emphasize that fact, the term is excessively used in the opening and closing numbers.

Written and directed by Lang, who also plays lead guitar and one of the characters, “Roadhouse The Musical” has a clever, if uneven, approach during its little over an hour production.

Rudy Sandy plays the Swayze role, voicing his lines in short movie scenes flashed on the wall. Meg Sullivan plays the narrator, along with other roles, tying the movie and live action together.

The “action” is mostly a series of songs, some good, some still needing work, written by Lang. Our favorites were “Pain Don’t Hurt” and “You’re Too Stupid to Have a Good Time,” both sung with tongue in cheek.

They are all country songs, and Sullivan and Peter Deffet do a good job with them, while the rest of the cast struggles, especially when singing too loudly in the background.

“Road Show” is a clever concept and, like the Wilbury folks said a number of times, “It is a work in progress.”

Tickets are $15, $10 for students and seniors. For more information go to www.thewilburygroup.org.

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